I don't pick the food when I come to these restaurants.

They pick for me.

This is not what I was expecting.

Guess what this is?

House made spam.

Never seen housemate spam anywhere before.

We got a crispy rice cake.

Interesting combination.

We got a little bit of peach over here.

Of course, perfect for this time of the year.

Oh, we cow.

That's freaking delicious.

It really is.

I gotta be honest with you.

I'm a huge fan of Chef Russ here.

He is doing some really creative dishes.

This is a chilled buckwheat chatara.

Never heard of that.

Don't know what a chitar is, but I'd love cold noodles in the summer.

Just so refreshing.

And then uh this mushroom broto right here.

And it's got poached base gallops in it, cucumbers, got some radishes.

Like it's 98 degrees outside.

I don't want to eat a hot pasta.

A nice chilled pasta.

Delightfully refreshing.

Absolutely need to put apple blossom on your restaurant list to visit.

And there's lots of opportunities because they're open for breakfast, lunch, dinner.

They have two happy hours, an early and a late night.

Come check them out as soon as possible.

Research Revival opened in the Hotel Indigo a little less than a year ago.

Absolutely stunning restaurant in the conversation for best-looking restaurant in all of Colorado.

And what they do here, small plates, tapas from around the area.

Not just Spain, but they do the whole Mediterranean.

So it's a very beverage focused restaurant.

Gorgeous, stunning drinks right here.

This actually somehow is a gin and tonic.

You ever seen anything like that?

And then I like this little prosecco here pouring into this right here.

Nice touch.

They brought me a little bit of everything, and that's what they do here.

It's about tapas, it's about sharing.

So you can try a lot of different things, which is the way I like to eat.

We got patatas bravas.

We got the salt cod right here, corn and tomato salad, and then some bass crudo.

Corn, tomato, onion, a little cilantro.

Perfect little summer dish right here.

I haven't had a good tomato in so long.

It reminds me of the farm that my grandparents had in upstate New York.

I'd go pick the tomatoes right off the vine and just eat it right there.

That's how good this is.

Alright, trying this crude right here.

So much attention to detail on each little plate.

Super fresh.

If you've never had crude before, it's sushi.

Just like sashimi without the rice.

Don't be afraid of it.

We can get good fish here in Colorado.

I think we haven't had um patatus bravas here since uh we were in Breckenridge at Mimo's.

I think if you're doing the toppest place, you gotta do these.

I don't think you're a toppas place without it.

Outstanding, just bursting with flavor.

Get into this salt cod right here.

Another really traditional Spanish tapas dish right here.

That's a 10.

We got a 10.

This is one of their signature dishes.

I bet this never comes off the menu.

This restaurant is absolutely a must-visit.

Put this on your list.

Come here as soon as possible.

Of course, the other four were pretty amazing too.

We'll see you soon for another episode of Restaurants Near Me.

Let's eat the hey Denver.

It's time for this bi-weekly meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

Alright, good afternoon, and welcome to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Today is Wednesday, June 17, 2026.

My name is Chantel and Lewis.

I'm the council person for District 8, and I'm excited to chair this committee.

We will start with a round of introductions and I'll start with my life.

Good afternoon.

Flora Andres, I'd like to eat district seven.

Good afternoon, Darrell Watson.

My district nine.

Good afternoon.

Paul Cashman, South Denver, District 6.

Hello, Chris Hines, Denver's perfect.

Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

Great, thank you.

Um so we have one action item from Den.

I'll allow you all the opportunity to introduce yourself so you can get into your presentation and then we have a quick briefing um with Councilman Watson and Front Range Passenger Will.

So, Washington CEO of Denver International Airport.

Chris Harden, chief commercial officer.

Brandon Zauers, Senior Director of Concessions.

Hi, Pamela Deshaunt, Senior Vice President of Concessions.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee.

I wanted to kick this off with three highlights that you will hear in this presentation.

The first is we heard you from last week on these three items that I'll highlight.

The first is there was discussion about the goal.

Um, with more to come when we get to the design phase.

So we are actually exceeding what was in the previous contract by mandating the first piece.

And so uh we want you to know that, and we have codified that in the contract, uh, and the vendor has agreed to that.

Uh the second big piece is uh you're gonna hear uh about uh revenue that will come to Den as well.

That 184 million that you will hear about will we be received by then uh as rent over the next 10 years uh over and above that 184 million dollars that will be received by Den and the city.

In addition to that, uh 16 million of that uh will go to the city, um uh in the form of taxes to the city uh that uh will be realized by the city.

Uh that 184 million dollars uh is very very important that will be received by us, that will create jobs for your constituents, our constituents, uh, and increasing generational wealth in our communities through that uh 10-year period.

Uh and then the third piece um as you as we prepare for the presentation is in terms of the uh procurement and all of that and the evaluation.

Uh we see this as uh a best value for Den and the city as well as we uh go through that uh process.

You will hear that in the presentation, but those three things is what I wanted to highlight.

So I'm gonna move this over to Ms.

Pam Deshaunt to walk through and also highlight when you get to that slide the three things that I brought up.

Thank you.

Thank you, committee chair, thank you, members of council, for having us back today to talk about the JC Deco contract.

As Phil mentioned, it's go ahead, Brendan, over the 10 years, 184 million dollars minimum to Den.

I want to draw attention to the next slide.

Um, the minimum annual guarantee that we've been talking about that 184 is illustrated here in purple on this chart.

The orange that you see is the percent rent above the minimum that we spoke about last time and again today, that 72.5 percent percent rent.

So there have been questions about um whether or not percent rent drastically drops off after the 30 million dollar threshold, which is shown in the chart on the in the red line here.

So that red line is the 30 million dollar threshold.

At no point over the 10 years will percent rent drop below 72.5 percent.

What that different bracket, if you will, looks like is anything above $30 million dollars will shift it to the bracket of 62.5 percent rent.

Now that doesn't mean we're not still getting the 72.5 below that threshold, but at that time, anything above 30 million dollars will go to the new bracket.

Go ahead.

Services provided under this contract include the over 16 million dollars investment that we spoke about.

And this includes the installation of all new advertising assets, removal of existing legacy assets that no longer serve DEN through the new program.

The advertising sales component of the pinyo welcome sign, and managing and selling all advertising at Dunn.

This is part of Vision 100, which is part woven into the DNA of everything that we do in the growing our infrastructure.

JC DeCoe will add new digital advertising assets and again remove all the assets which no longer serve us in our less is more vision moving forward into the future.

Community outreach.

So this contract went through not just the traditional outreach process that we do for all of our competitive process, all of our competitive procurements at Den.

We actually did even more.

As you can see on the slide, we conducted in-person outreach for each of the major airport media companies, a taking flight meeting.

This is a monthly meeting that the airport hosts for upcoming opportunities.

411 attendees were there.

We did make this pre-proposal meeting mandatory because of the caliber of the contract.

We wanted to make sure that everyone that was going to bid was required to be present so that they could ask questions in real time along with any other bidders.

And then three separate site visit events were held in April of last year.

I'd like to hand it over to Christopher Herndon to talk about small business.

And so this was a sticking point where we had a pretty in-depth conversation a couple of weeks ago.

So currently, with the airport concession disadvantaged business enterprise, ACDBE, we as DIN cannot have current ACDBE goals because of the federal government's requirement to recertify them.

And that's just the reality and truth of a place where we are currently right now, which was the sticking point with many members of council.

How do we verify that the awardee will have small business participation in this contract?

So over the past two weeks, we went back to the awardee and said we're going to have a contract obligation that you are committing to utilize a small disadvantaged business.

And so they said yes, so it's now in writing, enforceable that Jay Perez and associates will be the exclusive provider to perform maintenance, cleaning, and repair work under this agreement.

There's no misunderstanding of will this happen.

The answer is now yes, because it's codified in the contract that's coming forward to council.

So that is so we can now say yes, there will be small disadvantaged business participation in that.

That's part one.

So secondly, the contract goes through city council and is awarded.

The awardee has to do design and construction scope to Dismo, division of small business and opportunity.

They will submit their scope of work to Disbo.

Disbo comes back and provides mandated goals, MWBE goals for design and construction.

So there will be two avenues where this awardee will be utilizing small disadvantaged business.

One contractually that we have now in writing, and then two, post-awarding, it will submit their scope of work to Disbo, and then there will be a second set of MWBE goals for design and construction.

So those two opportunities where we sit before you and say yes, there will be MWBE small business participation throughout this contract.

And so we go to the next slide.

This evaluation criteria is multifaceted.

And again, I spoke to this, but we didn't have it in writing, wanted you to see these were the multiple evaluation criteria that we utilized when we were going through the process to choose an awardee for this contract.

And yes, I added that up, it adds to 100.

So as people talk about particular aspects of it, finance is one that we always stick to, but there were, as you can see, then equity technology, et cetera.

These were the multiple criteria that we use when we were going through the process to award this contract.

And now I'll turn it back to Pam.

Thank you, Chris.

And to wrap up, we wanted to go over our selection process again.

It was indeed a competitive request for proposal with three qualified bidders.

The selection panel made up of various city and county of Denver stakeholders.

This includes someone from the concessions team, the advertising industry, the marketing team, business technology, excuse me, and a financial subject matter expert.

These interviews, our traditional interviews are anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.

These particular interviews were three hours long based on the substance of what's what we have going on here.

And the ordinal ranking is listed on the slide.

These particular partners are headquartered in New York City.

JCD Co.

has implemented first class advertising programs in nine of the 20 largest international airports.

And furthermore, they are partnering with J Perez and Associates, an experienced small business firm who will be providing the maintenance and operation services for the program as we discussed earlier.

And that concludes our presentation.

We're here to seek the approval of the contract with JC DeCoe, and are happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate your time.

We have a few members in the queue, Councilman Hines.

Thank you.

Committee chair, thank you for the um for bringing this back and for the additional information, including the uh MWE BWBE selection.

Um I thank you also for giving the evaluation criteria in slide eight.

I noticed the second to bottom uh uh line item is den Equity Diversity Inclusion and Accessibility Plan.

Is this the original?

Oh, there we go.

Was this the original um list of values and weights for each values or for each value for the RFP for all the vendors?

Yes.

Yes.

So how did that work?

Um, the equity that 15% uh when, as Mr.

Henlin rightly says, we've got an administration that is very frustrating at the federal level for um for many people, including me, um, that you cannot um you cannot wait certain criteria, but yet you are waiting certain criteria.

So how did you do that?

Let's take it up.

Hi.

Can we come to that?

Yeah, it come to the microphone, introduce yourself so that we know who you are.

Sure.

Hi, good afternoon, Sassan.

Yes.

My name is Tegan Kasane.

I'm the senior vice president of business operations for the airport.

Thanks for um inviting us here today.

So to speak to that question, this is part of the weighting that's applied to every procurement that the airport solicits.

Um, that is one of the ways that we determine best value.

Who do we want to do work with?

And so this particular section includes approximately seven to ten questions that ask how these proposers are embedding EDIA principles within the fabric of their organization.

So it could be mentorship programs, it could be apprenticeship, it could be um requiring that every employee complete race and social justice training.

And so they're not based off of race and gender, which is I believe the components that are in question related to the interim final rule.

Instead, it's more qualitative in nature, and it asks how are you as a business prioritizing this work in how you support the community, and then those responses are compared against one another as part of the scoring criteria.

So was the was uh the RFP issued, and then midstream, the federal government.

Yes.

So how did the so I you know I want to preserve the sanctity of the RFP process, right?

But but yeah, this um you kind of had to switch horses make stream anyway, and so I I guess I don't know director wash, so I guess how does that and you know I didn't really ask the quite any question at all.

Uh so how about I ask the question?

Yes, how does that work um when there's uh you have to change horses, ministry?

The RFP had already closed by the time the interim final rule uh was launched on October 3rd.

So we had already closed the process, so which means correct me if I'm wrong, none of this changed.

That is true.

The vendor had already been selected, um, by that, or well, the solicitation period had closed, and so then it was moving into vendor selection negotiation on the other phases of the contract procurement.

But the so the RFP had closed, but then um because the edict came down from the federal level, um, when you were awarding the contract, you then could not say two percent will be guaranteed to medicine associates or or any vendor.

Is that am I am I getting that right?

Yes, because they weren't recertified, so in theory, we didn't have a pool for which they could say we can collaborate with this firm, and so it was this period of ambiguity um that landed right smack dab in the middle of that negotiation.

I guess the the nature of my questions I'm trying to, you know, we got a letter, you just talked about the letter, um, uh we got a subsequent letter.

Um, I'm the the nature of the questions are did the RF was was the RFP process somehow tarnished by the edict from the federal level, or um it doesn't really sound to me like that is the case.

No, so it it was not tarnished um as I said as in one of my highlights, um, we uh as a best value provision, um asked the uh in this case JC uh to commit to uh a goal not a goal but a firm, historically uh underutilized businesses a business coming in uh as a value for us to include a small business in this contract.

So it was a best value kind of thing.

We value goal or no goal, we value a small business being a part of this, and so we in effect mandated that, and the con and the uh contractor agreed to that, thus the codification in the contract right now.

Yeah, and then just one other kind of just going down that vein just a little bit more, the um making sure that the sanctity process is preserved, you would have asked that of any chosen vendor, because we asked that of you, absolutely.

So this this is a value here locally for the city and then run a national airport.

Okay, thank you for mentioning best value 15 times.

Well, uh, more conversations about best value in the near future.

So thank you.

Thank you, Committee Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Avios.

Thank you so much.

Um, I appreciate you all coming back and having a more firm commitment.

What I didn't understand is that commitment from the AC DBE side or the MWBE side, it's actually um a it's MWBE.

That's automatic.

That goal will be established once the contract is executed.

What we're talking about is a small business partnership, since we can't technically count ACDBE, and does that answer a question or fill it?

It's yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, if I understand the question, um, this is a uh historically underutilized business, small business, uh being included in this solicitation, regardless of whether it's a goal or not, it is a value for this contractor and for us, uh, to include a business.

And we're saying, yes, do that.

And so goal or no goal, we're saying that we think that this is important, and so we included it in the contract.

Up to what percentage?

It is a solid percentage set aside for this underutilized business.

For this phase of it, it is the same percentage that was in the previous contract, uh, at a little over 2% or so.

Uh, and uh the follow-on will be what Mr.

Herndon mentioned.

Construction right about focusing on with the advertising.

When you were here previously, it was up to two percent.

And I apologize, I didn't wasn't able to take the briefing this week.

It's been very busy.

I mean, but I um so I'm not sure that language was changed.

It was up to two percent, and in the slide I read the same thing up to two percent.

This is a solid um two percent or whatever it is uh in the contract, I don't believe is up to anything, it's a solid figure, and I think that language not to exceed could be somewhat misleading, because it can paint the picture of that's as high as the goals ever gonna get.

That just means the goal that the airport, and we should have the team answer these questions formally, the goal apply that we apply for ACDBE when it comes back.

If it comes back, won't exceed two percent.

So we can be clear with our partner, the goal we apply won't be two percent.

That doesn't mean JC Dako is not going to far far exceed that it could be 50 percent.

Um so that's not a cap.

That's and may I bring our goals subject matter expert?

Hello everybody, uh Sean Smith, I'm the senior vice president of culture and strategy.

So uh ACDBE program over uh falls under my uh purview.

So what we did here is essentially given ourselves a future opportunity to set a goal in addition to requiring that same firm that was initially proposed to be required throughout the duration of the contract to provide the goods and services component.

So we're in effect creating two opportunities to have the small business and ensure that they are actually performing the work that was that was proposed.

It was part of the the negotiation, it was part of the proposal from JC Deco.

So by doing this, we're not just saying you must do it because it's best value.

We are also saying in the future we may come back and we can also set an additional goal beyond what we're already requiring of you.

So we're giving ourselves a lot more room to sort of force JC Dakota to comply with our best value of what we believe is the right the right thing to do.

Okay, um, since you're the expert in the ACDBE, has are you aware of anyone requalifying post the decision to be certified?

So we won't have that answer until the full pool of about 160 firms has been fully evaluated, and that's the point.

Is evaluating those?

My team is.

You're evaluating 160 applications to become a certified firm, right?

That's correct.

So of the original ACDBE pool of firms we had, they were provided the opportunity to request recertification.

We had about 160 of them said yes, I'd like to recertify.

So we're working with them right now to deliver, they need to deliver to us the the paperwork basically that's required to do that, and it takes some iterations to get that done.

So we're working really closely with them to get that done.

Once all 160 have been evaluated, we'll submit that to the FAA or to DOT, and we'll say, hey, you know, this is done.

This is who's being recertified under criteria that is no longer presumptively looking at gender or race as uh a disadvantage.

What is your estimated timeline on that?

So right now, to get the pool done, we're estimating Q3, and then there's some additional steps and FAA approvals that'll be required, and unfortunately, it's on their timeline.

So I I am aiming, I'm hoping that we'll have this done certainly third or fourth quarter.

We're gonna try to get it done sooner if we can get FAA um to to help us out.

Okay, that's helpful.

I appreciate that.

Sure.

And can I add one thing to this is happening all over the country?

Right.

You first told me about this, and I know it's important to you, Mr.

Washington.

I absolutely appreciate that.

Yes, it's and and I would venture to say uh just in my conversations with my uh colleagues and counterparts in the aviation space and in the transit space too, that we are, I believe, ahead of other agencies around the country in the re-evaluation that leads to the reconstitution, the pool.

Um, but what we're saying in the meantime is as a best value, we think, and it's important for us, that you do this other thing, uh uh as a best value.

So that is why uh we made this a requirement.

And where was that requirement in these eight criteria and percentages?

Or was it in this eight criteria?

So it wasn't.

So then it wasn't weighted when you're evaluating the proposals.

Uh it wasn't, but we would do the same thing with any contractor.

Um, you know, as again to say this is important to us as an entity, um, that uh requirement or not, we think that you should do this for the good of the airport in the city.

Thank you.

Um one more question why why not wait until this is complete and keep the current contract going so that we can have a goal and have it weighted.

Uh I think uh, and I'll ask my colleagues if to chime in uh if they if they so choose, uh, but we have gone through the solicitation, it was on the timeline, uh, and uh I think if we delay that it would be a disservice um for the city uh and uh and also the contractors that prepare their proposals uh for upwards of a year or so uh in preparing those.

So we feel strongly that we should stick to the timeline.

I I find it hard to believe, and maybe it's it is possible that this rule change didn't affect who ended up getting this contract.

Councilman, if I may, because we had gone through the entire process before the interim final rule dropped, as uh Tegan mentioned.

So we had submitted the proposals, we got our responses back from the three, we went through the entire design criteria.

So we had chosen the awardee, and then the rule dropped.

So that in any way did not impact the criteria, everyone's submittal, and then choosing who should be awarded.

That's why we we do not believe that with the changes of the interim final rule, it impacted who was chosen who received this award.

Okay, I appreciate that.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Committee Chairman Councilman.

Thank you.

Now let me pile on the uh two percent thing, uh, because Phil, I think the main contract does say up to a maximum of two percent.

Um, but I just want to make sure that's clarified.

That means we cannot set a goal under the contract, we can't set a goal that's higher than two percent.

That doesn't mean, as Pam said, that the concessionary can't exceed that and probably wouldn't.

In fact, I think the Clear Channel, the concessionary right now, has significantly exceeded the two percent.

Have they not?

Correct, correct.

Any idea what they've achieved?

Yes, you can go off and I just maybe under the current contract, they're at 2.02%.

Under the current contract that's operating today, it's 2.02 percent, is what they're they've obtained.

But we what has been what level of uh have they achieved?

What percentage have they achieved?

If you know they've achieved 2.02 percent.

Really?

I thought it was higher enough.

Anyway, but there's nothing by setting the goal at two percent that prohibits them from wildly exceeding that if that were to happen.

Uh but uh but it does say up to a maximum of two percent in the contract.

Uh so we're not setting a goal of two percent there, but I did read through it yesterday.

Thank you for sending it, and I read the exhibit or the attachment that was signed by the company and by Perez that committed to two percent, sort of as a codicill to that, right?

If that's a good term.

So what I'm wondering is, if FAA were to look at this or DOT were to look at this, they say, well, how can you set a goal?

Because we haven't approved your ACDBEs yet.

You haven't recertified everybody.

Yeah, you have a contract that says you they're committing to 2%.

How can that pass muster with the feds?

What's your view on that?

Listen, I am not a lawyer and I don't want to be a lawyer.

Neither do I.

You do have the lawyers.

But this is a good thing that the contractor is doing and committing to as a good citizen in our community.

This is what this is, in my view.

This is the benevolent contractor saying that this is important to us as well, whether we have a goal or not.

We are going to do business this way, and we're going to bring in a small business.

You may be the first person ever to use the words benevolent and contractor together.

Thank you.

The second item on the minimum annual guarantee, that chart that was on slide three, uh, thank you for that.

Uh has the uh has the current contract ever yielded as much as 30 million dollars revenue in a year?

No, it has not.

Uh so I'm wondering on what do we base our prognostication that do you have a word?

Oh wow.

Okay, wow.

To use it three times and you'll own it forever.

A creature will appear.

There you go.

Uh on what we base our guess that that orange uh bar will exceed 30 million dollars by uh 2032, uh, if we haven't exceeded it yet.

That's my first question.

So what on what we base our guess that this chart is realistic?

Can we have our partner share?

No.

Um, I mean you go.

May we have our partner speak?

That's right.

May we have our partner speak?

Yeah, we are ready.

Sure.

Who's that?

This is JC DeCoe.

Is this Mr.

DeCoe?

I'm sorry.

Uh, Council members, I'm afraid it's not J.

It's not me, Mr.

DeCo.

My name is Alan Sullivan.

I am the co-CEO of JC DeCoe North America.

Um, so the question was how do we expect to be able to reach that 30 million threshold?

So, as the uh the esteemed group before you have already said, we're gonna introduce a significant redevelopment and upgrade of the advertising portfolio within the uh Denver uh airport.

Almost all of the um advertising is going to be digital of nature, which is really um a part of the business that has been transformative in the out-of-home space and has kept us as a sector relevant um in light of the uh social media um and the 70 cents that's spent on digital advertising on every dollar in North America at the moment.

So that digital infrastructure is going to provide us with a fantastic mechanism to fully exploit the advertising far better than the uh the majority of the static installations that are currently in place in the existing program.

So, as part of our projections and as part of the business plan that we put forward in terms of our bid, um we provided those those statistics at the top that show that there is a gradual um ramp up of our advertising revenues, um, up well above uh 30 30 million um by the year 2032, and as I say, that's driven largely by the uh the expansion of the digital program on fewer locations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

So just to be clear, and I know it's not up on the on the screen for people watching at home or here in the room, but the only guarantee, and it's not saying that that they won't exceed the mag because I think Clear Channel has exceeded the MAG as uh under the current contract as well.

So I I expect that it'll be more, it'll more than exceed the purple lines, but that's the only guarantee that's 184 million uh cumulative over the 10 years.

And now the last thing I want to understand about this, and I think I heard you correctly, Pam, but I want to clarify the 72 and a half percent of the overage rent above the minimum guarantee each year is we get 72 and a half percent of that orange bar up to the red line when the overage exceeds 30 million, the 62 and a half percent share that we get applies only to the amount above the 30 million.

Did I hear that correct?

Absolutely correct.

Okay, so it's like a progressive income tax where you pay more tax relatively than your is above a certain amount.

Exactly that.

Okay, I want to make sure I understood that correctly.

Last question, uh uh I don't know who can answer this, but I want to clearly understand the issue with the light sticks on Penya on the Penny Boulevard welcome sign.

Uh subject near and dear to Councilman Cashwitz already loves them.

He goes out there in parks and watches the colors change.

Thank you very much.

So what is what was in the RFP regarding the penulite sticks, and why are we at our expense taking them out?

Are we not gonna replace any art element out there at all and just have four advertising signs?

That's not the plan.

Is that a change from the RFP?

No.

In the RFP, we um published, and I might need your help with this.

Um that the proposer may need to do whatever the airport decides needs to be done with the sticks.

We'll call them the sticks, the light sticks.

Um, what did I miss for the RFP?

It was super close to it.

That's it.

Apparently, what we decided to do was take them out at our own expense, yeah.

But we didn't decide that, and I would love for my colleague Kyle Lester to chime in about our plan moving forward.

Thank you.

Kyle Lester, senior vice president of maintenance, so great question.

We're all asking what we're gonna do with the sticks and how we're gonna make this sign work.

We as a group decided there's a large investment in the structure, the concrete, the steel uh of those sticks, and we want to keep that, and we want to keep basically what you're alluding to is instead of having just four blanks or signs out there, we want to keep the art installation, the welcome sign, the intent intact.

Okay, so the the RFP went forth with replacing the digital signs.

I'm working on to uh fix the sticks.

Um the technology is end of end of life.

Uh and so working, oh yeah, I don't think that's that old.

It's 10 years old.

That ain't old.

Computer-wise, yes, they're that technology is at end of life.

Uh, and so we're working with Panasonic uh to we they redesigned it, came specifically working on the connections, working on vibration, uh working on wiring with rodent uh resistant wiring, all these issues that have come up over the past 10 years.

Uh, redesign it, we're gonna run a pilot project or kind of run their prototype with 33 of the sticks starting probably in October, is what the schedule says right now.

So, long story short, there will still be there's gonna be the sign, it's gonna, it's gonna be lit up just like in the past.

Uh, we're gonna instead of jumping right in, we're gonna prototype what they're proposing, and then move slowly through an evaluation process over the course of probably the winter is what we're looking at right now.

All right, thank you.

That clarifies it a lot for me.

I appreciate that.

That's why I have not sure.

Thank you so much.

Councilwoman on the dress, you have another question.

Yes, I I actually wanted to hear from JC DeCoe.

Alright.

The representative can come back.

Uh um, I would like to just hear from you and give you the opportunity to talk about how you plan on, you know, using this business opportunity to invest in our local economy and use our local small businesses.

Uh I think that's really important to us, and I don't know if you have a history of doing that, and where are you located?

So um thank you for the opportunity.

Very much appreciated.

It is clearly a very important subject, and one that JCD Co.

takes very seriously and is committed to or was committed to before the IFR, the ACDB program within uh within North America.

So as Pam said, we are based in uh New York, we're headquartered in New York, but we have um a number of airports that we represent across the entire North America uh continent.

Um so coming back to your question, um there's some of the challenges in terms of the interpretation of the the two percent.

Um I just want to be absolutely clear.

In our submission, um we consider the 2% a floor, not a ceiling.

Um, and you know, in our proposal, we are anticipating the uh contribution to the small business element of goods and services, well exceeding 50% of all money spent in goods and services in this contract, with a likelihood it's going to go beyond that too.

Um, so the the partner that we are choosing is going to be based here in Denver.

We will be using Denver employees uh that will be working within the airport space and they will be dedicated purely to this airport.

Um so that is the most direct answer I can give you in terms of supporting the local economy outside of the revenues that we're going to be giving uh Denver through the revenue share, the minimum guarantee, and also the not insignificant amount of possessory interest tax, which I think uh Mr.

Washington referred to, uh, means you know, in in the matter of around about you know 12 to 16 additional million dollars that will be going to uh the city funds.

So, as I say, you know, we are truly committed to this value program.

I would be very careful with my language, value program to support local businesses, and we have um a number of our partners that have come through the uh ACDB program that continue to be very strong partners with us at JC Duco and we're happy to provide uh testimonials from them should the uh should the committees feel that would be of benefit.

So you have these partners, but you're open and looking at partnering with more companies that may be here that you don't have partners with.

Yep, and that would be uh part of the uh the Disbo process for the construction and design process that is set to be defined within the contract process itself on signature.

We as an organization have already done outreach to a number of those architectural and construction firms.

So, you know, we are keen to get this conversation moving and start being able to deliver the value to the economy as soon as we possibly can by the investment of the uh the commencement of the 60 million dollar capital investment that we've got planned for Denver over the next 10 years.

I appreciate that, and I appreciate you being here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

Can I add can I add one just one quick thing?

Um my guess is that uh small businesses uh that were utilized on the previous or the current contract um would uh would be entertained by this proposed new contract if this is approved.

Uh and um I'm talking about folks that have worked um uh on the current contract.

Uh and so we would help facilitate that if JC LeCaux agrees with what I'm saying.

Absolutely.

Absolutely entertain that, and we would be positively in favor of it.

Clearly, those kind of conversations we didn't feel would be appropriate in the RFP process in the cone of silence because we didn't think it would be uh particularly ethical to go and start speaking to existing providers that are working with Clear Channel, but once this is concluded, we will absolutely entertain that for sure.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Both.

Thank you so much, Committee Chair.

So thank you.

Um I don't know if I said this uh in the last committee, so I just want to make sure that uh on its uh fees, um uh face.

Um providing um incentives for companies to go above and beyond after achieving lofty goals, makes a whole lot of sense to me.

So um, you know, the uh as Councilmember Flynn asked this time, and I asked two weeks ago, um, the current vendors never made 30 million dollars.

So this I see this is a lofty goal.

So we we want them to try hard and uh and succeed hard.

So um, so just as a but uh councilmember Flynn asked about the sign and the sticks.

I don't know if this is a technical question.

Um I think it's more uh again in the same vein of the uh sanctity of the RFP process.

What did the RFP say about the sign and the sticks?

And how has that or and landscaping?

Um are those all part of uh was there something in the RFP about certainly I'm pretty sure there's something about the sign, but what about the sticks and the landscaping around the signs and the sticks?

The RFP, the intent of the RFP was to make sure that any of the proposers would remain flexible to whatever the airport decided would be the fate of the sticks.

I think we have exact language from the RFP about that that we're happy to share.

But our goal was to keep it open.

What if we wanted to get rid of the sticks completely and do a different art sculpture?

What if we wanted to just have bare advertising signs by themselves?

What if we wanted to try to rehab the sticks as Kyle is so boldly trying to do?

Our intent was to remain flexible, and that never changed.

Yeah, be I'd be interested to see the RFP language.

Thank you.

Happy to.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

I just want to I I just have um two quick questions.

Do you all have incentives in place already to encourage the contractors to exceed the two percent as written in the contract?

Like not for this one specifically, but previously that you've used councilman, when you say incentives, you mean say monetary?

I just want to make sure we understand how you're how you define this.

I mean, it could be.

I'm just curious as to like what do you all what have you all utilize or put in place to encourage the contractor exceeding the 2%?

It could be monetary, it could be something else.

I'm just curious.

I can think of the excellence in service program that we run through the traditional concessions contracts, in which when our concession partners align with the city and the airport's core values, in particular Vision 100, uh, they are incentivized by maintaining a strong and fair and equitable joint venture partnership with their ACDBE partner.

Um and the incentive at the end of the term could look like three years if they remain good partners and in good standing with their ACDBEs.

That's one example I can think of.

That's an extension in the term councilwoman.

So original 12-year term, they receive excellence in service, they could receive an additional three years if they meet those uh metrics that got it.

Thank you.

And then I just want to make sure I understood.

I I thought in my briefing for the Dispo piece that once the contract was executed, then you would figure out what the goal is in partnership or led by Disbo.

Is that am I misunderstanding that?

No, that's correct.

So for design and construction, once they submit their scope of work to disbo, disbo will assign goals that they have to achieve based off of their design and construction scope.

Do you know the methodology that Disbo uses to determine what those goals are?

You look nice, thank you.

I was just here to listen.

Um good afternoon, everyone.

Um Adrena Gibson, executive director of general services.

The business utilization and compliance sector of the division of small business opportunity resides in general services, so that's why I'm sharing.

As it relates to our mechanism for establishing MWBE goals on design and construction related projects, we look at a multitude of things.

So we're um addressing scope, um, we're looking at um estimated cost, and then we're meeting with the project program managers to ensure that we understand the um the project as a whole.

Once we have that information, we are looking at um each of the scope elements of that program and then NACE codes associated with that.

Those NACE codes are North American industry, classifications, class systems.

Thank you.

So NACE codes.

Based off those NICS codes, we'll understand how many businesses are actually certified in that specific NAICS code associated with that scope element.

And there could be a hundred, there could be two.

We run that into our tool, and that will essentially calculate what the MWB goal should be.

Once we have that calculation, we also look at further considerations related to is this what are the conditions of this project?

What are the risks associated?

When is the work being done?

Because all of that can impact a business's capacity, the time frame at which it needs to be completed, if that is a subcontractable opportunity or a large prime contracting opportunity or the certifications needed, etc.

And then that will help us generate what that actual percentage should be for our partners.

What's the highest percentage that you all have assigned?

There's no such thing.

No, okay.

I mean, we've been, I will say that in the space of establishing MWB goals, our goal is only going to be as aggressive as the pool that we have.

So in my past life, under actually Mr.

Washington, we've established a 51% goal when we were at RTD.

So it just depends on how plentiful the poll is and what type of project it is.

But I aim for defensible and aggressive.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Those are my only questions.

It doesn't look like we have anyone else in the queue.

This is an action item until we would need someone to make a motion in a second.

So moved.

So seconded.

Councilman Catchman, followed by Councilman Hunt.

Do y'all need a roll call vote?

Great.

Thank you.

Do you have announcements?

No.

All right.

I remember it this time.

It's only been two years.

Well, thank you all so much for your time.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a briefing.

You all can come and get set up.

Wedge words.

Thank you.

Hey, thank you.

Good to see you.

Okay.

Good to see it.

Thanks.

So we are transitioning to a briefing from the front range passenger rail.

General update.

Thank you so much, committee chair.

Yes.

So thank you so much to the committee for entertaining this proclamation.

My name is Daryl Watson.

I'm the city council member representing the fine district nine.

I'm honored to be joining the honorables put it in plural.

Councilwoman Elmer Wedgeworth and Sal Pace, who's done many things.

Council, commissioner, and state representative, and so I appreciate them all both being here.

Provide a high level overview of the why this proclamation is important, and I'll open it up to the Honorable Elber Wedgeworth and Honorable Sal Pace to share any additional information, and then we'll open up for questions from council members on uh on this.

So the proclamation um reads as let me brighten this up.

Supporting the front range passenger rail districts proposed special events uh stations and the development of passenger rail service along the front range, whereas the front range passenger rail uh district FRPR district who was established as a corporate and political subdivision of the state of Colorado to research, develop, construct, operate, and maintain an interconnected passenger rail system along the front range, extended from Wyoming to New Mexico.

And whereas the development of Colorado Connector, Coco represents a significant regional investment in multimodal transportation uh infrastructure designed to serve the current and future generations of Coloradoans, and whereas Coco is intended to connect residents and visitors to employment centers, housing opportunities, colleges and universities, medical facilities, and entertainment um destinations throughout the front range.

And whereas Colorado's front range um population is projected to approach eight million residents in the coming decades, increasing demand on existing transportation systems and exacerbating congestion along Interstate 25, one of the state's most heavily traveled and consistently congested corridors.

And whereas passenger rail offers a reliable, efficient, and sustainable transportation alternative, and can I say that can reduce vehicle miles traveled, alleviate roadway congestion, and contribute to improved air quality and environmental outcomes.

And whereas the Department of Colorado Transportation, CDOT, the FRPR district and class class I or Class 1 freight railroads, I think I messed that up, spent the last four years extensively studying the operational feasibility of utilizing existing rail infrastructure, enabling near-term passenger service while maximizing the use of existing assets.

And whereas pending voter approval, initial passenger rail service that is anticipated to begin as early as 2029, will expand frequencies and coverages, providing a timely response to growing transportation needs.

And whereas the FRPR district was conducted, public has conducted public outreach through town hall meetings, city council presentations, social media engagement, providing community with meaningful opportunities to ask questions, offer input, and engage with FRPR district board members and staff.

And whereas Denver Union Station will serve as the hub of the future of COCO Rail Network and is expected to benefit from the highest volume of total boardings on the system.

And whereas the inclusion of two special event COCO stations in Denver, conditional on final approval from the Class One host railroad uh partners, has the potential to enhance transportation options, increase community vibrancy, support economic development, advance the creation of transit-oriented development, and generate increased activity in the hospitality, retail, and service sectors and final, whereas the FRPR district has committed committed to provide annual payments to the city and county of Denver after a ballot measure passes for a period of 25 years through the FRPR district local return program to support the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of passenger rail facilities, stations and stations area improvements, including multimodal access, first and last mile connectivity, transit connections, transit-oriented development activities, and other investments that enhance access connectivity and functionality associated with the COCO station areas in Denver.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Denver City Council Section One that the Denver City Council recognizes that the front range passenger rail district goes aligned with Denver's comprehensive 2040 plan, Blueprint Denver, and other local priorities, and that section two, that the clerk and recorder of City and County of Denver shall affix the seal of the City and County of Denver to this proclamation, and that the seal be transmitted to the front range passenger rail district.

I'm here to um colleagues uh presenting this proclamation in uh um anticipation of this going to the floor and having a deeper dialogue um for uh three real uh I should say six uh specific reasons and I'll then I'll turn it over to our esteemed guests to provide uh deeper dive before we open for questions.

Um, we believe that um an alternative to that cocoa provides an alternative to highway congestion.

Uh, we believe that that alternative is a cleaner alternative to what we currently have.

Uh we believe that affordable transportation is a right and it is an opportunity as we look at COCO.

Um, the economic multiplier effect, someone else is going to describe the math, but it is going to multiply and provide the opportunity for more folks to use um transportation and multimodal transportation throughout the corridor.

Household values, we know that household values have increased um along um uh similar rail systems, and we believe the same will happen with cocoa and new jobs, a big thing that we always talk about.

This should create 50,000 jobs per 1 billion.

Um, once again, someone else is going to lay out the math on this, and transit creates 30 percent plus more jobs than roads.

I think it's an excellent opportunity, and I'll turn it over to our esteemed guests who have done this work uh over time.

I'll start for us with the honorable councilwoman Elber Wedgeworth.

Good afternoon, everyone.

It's a pleasure and an honor to be here.

Um I am supporting um front range passenger rail district, and I'm um really excited about this because we've been talking about Pastor Ralph since before a lot of these people in the room for more details so I think it's time to do that and I think that we're totally committed we have a lot of supporters that are already in the room wearing their stickers here and so I'm just excited about it because we're this is a very comprehensive way to look at alternatives in terms of travel and we have to really look in the future for Colorado and the front range and so uh we urge your support of this proclamation and uh we would like to present this on Monday the 13th of July and we hope to get your support so thank you and this is Sal Pace the general manager of the front range passenger rail district.

Thank you madam chair and uh committee uh sal Pace General Manager of the Front Range Passenger Rail District thanks for having us back and I do want to uh quickly introduce again our board chair John Putnam um uh the most qualified uh transportation board chair in Colorado who uh was the chief legal counsel at USDOT under Peterge so we're we're in good hands and uh Chris Nevitt our vice chair from city and county of Denver and appointed by Dr.

Cogg so we're in we're my we've got good hands uh overseeing the project and and also the uh contractors and the staff and uh rail supporters who showed up today so thank you all for coming uh this is part of our road show and uh if everything moves forward then by August we'll have similar proclamations from each of the station communities up and down the front range yesterday we had a final votes in Fort Collins and Littleton and uh we are going before Pueblo and Trinidad next week so uh we're making uh we're making the uh trip up and down and visiting with all our stationary communities we're also uh we've also done 20 town hall meetings with over 2000 uh residents showing up in in person and we plan on doing another 10 in August uh before we contemplate and vote on a ballot referral um i'm uh I'm excited that we are uh I will be proposing to our board uh that with our local return uh program contemplating uh uh sending the city and county of Denver over 200 million dollars uh to support uh station area access mobility first mile last mile connectivity and infrastructure improvements and over a hundred million dollars that we are contemplating for additional uh transit and rail and pedestrian access at uh a couple proposed uh special event stations in Denver and uh that is part of our local return program making sure that not only is the district funding the transportation uh between the metropolitan areas in Colorado but that the cities themselves that are receiving the stations have the resources to make sure that everyone in their community can connect to uh to the stations themselves happy to take any questions and very grateful for councilman watson for uh proposing this uh resolution and thank you for the opportunity thank you miss the payson I was remiss of not introducing the honorable uh Chris Nevitt thank you so much for returning and with that um committee chair I turn it back over to the committee for any questions of folks may have thank you um we have three folks in the queue councilman hein you're up first and follow cash thank you committee chair uh just start by saying I'm a huge fan of multimodal transit I became politically uh active in Colorado uh right after you left office um I was I started going to the the General Assembly uh in 2013 and 2014 um to uh to talk about access uh to transportation particularly for people with disabilities but um I believe we all deserve the freedom to get from A to B safely no matter how we choose to get there and um and I as I said in the COCO uh briefing a couple weeks ago um you know I think uh housing is a is a human right being able to get two places is also something where um government has responsibility to lean in and uh at frankly any price um because uh mass transit uh is on its face cheaper than uh then building highways for single occupant vehicles so um so is as we invest and I say at any price because that whatever price that is is cheaper than um then building a uh a nation that's dependent on freeways and and cars so uh at any price is a bit qualified I guess um uh I I'm a big victim of traffic violence um you know on one of those streets uh this is an acquired injury and um I don't want anyone else to to you know have that same uh reality that uh that I you know that I'm part of I joined the disability community the Tuesday night at the Democratic national convention um uh the disability community is the only protective class that anyone can join at any time whether they like it or not um and uh and so you know traffic violence um far and away is more prevalent in single these are literally the most accidental we needed it right yes thank you uh it's uh traffic violence far and away happens more uh in cars and single occupant vehicles than it does in any form of mass transit so we're solving for um you know uh getting around which is a I believe an a government obligation we're solving for the planet we're solving for community uh if you're encased in thousands of pounds of metal glasses in a single occupant vehicle you can't talk to the person next to you at the light but if you're at a bike uh on a on a bicycle or a pedestrian you can say hi to your neighbor and you could say oh yeah we've lived next to each other for four years and I've never introduced myself because uh because we're driving around in cars all the time so um I also uh believe that Denver will substantially benefit from front range passenger rail union stations in my district and uh in part the reason why Denver will substantially benefit is because we've solved non-car transit around union station we haven't solved it city citywide but people will come to union station and the two special um event sites but people will come to union station because they can get to places uh near union station even a mile away uh without a car at all and um and so I believe um not only will we benefit as a reputationally as a city but economically as people come to send their uh spend their sales tax dollars so um I was gonna ask about a tax um you mentioned the local component you said 200 million dollars and then you said another 100 million dollars is it 200 million part of the hundred million or is it 300 million dollars we'll we'll be proposing staff will be proposing to our board that over 300 million dollars is invested into Denver this is over 25 years um and uh uh for infrastructure for multimodal for pedestrian access etc um of that uh a little less than a little less than 250 million will be for the city of Denver to uh utilize as the city determinants in an IGA that we would negotiate together to improve access across the community and then the additional 127 million roughly is uh it's identified for potential um transit walkability improvements at the special event uh special event stations um and we're we're talking with uh city staff about this, and uh with the special event stops, it has not been approved by the board yet, but these are uh these are uh the numbers that the staff are planning to present to our board.

That's walk a roll.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, that's so um i think that my my biggest thought was there's a little bit of a um uh a dissonance in that we get 200 million dollars plus another 127 million dollars over 25 years.

We as in the city of Denver, and the tax is there.

Is there a tax component?

Yes, so the ta yeah, so the tax is a district-wide tax.

What we are currently modeling out, and ultimately this would be a board decision by the board of the front range passenger rail district that we are a special district just like other special districts across the state.

What we're modeling out right now is a third of a penny, uh, and that would be a third of a penny on a one-dollar purchase.

Okay, um so uh so there's a little bit of a dissonance.

Isn't the city never gets the 300 and change million dollars?

It's a lot of pennies, by the way, the change.

Um, but uh, and then there's a third of a percent tax on sales tax, right?

Um, which is about a third of our sales taxes paid for by people who don't live in Denver.

Um, not asking you to do the modeling.

I'm taking that stab.

I believe the numbers are still at least in that ballpark.

Um but uh I I wonder, as we're considering this proclamation, um, if it makes sense for us to have in the proclamation, Councilmember Watson, is a bit of a question to you, um, have that tax in there so that we're not um skipping something that is uh you know a consideration uh for the voters in November, and so I I noticed that it isn't in there.

Um we didn't really have the opportunity to chat about this um yeah uh because of the proximity of the um proclamation to the uh to the committee.

Um I don't know if I'm necessarily set on that, but I've I want to be as transparent to the people of Denver, and I don't want to get knocked for not being transparent when that is a good reservation that that's that people might have.

Yes, sir.

Uh counselor, uh for what it's worth, these resolutions that we've been uh proposing up and down the district.

We have not been talking in the resolution specifically about a referred measure or a potential tax.

We have been transparent about it.

Uh, however, you know, lacking a new tax, we think that uh a statement of support of the project in of itself has value.

Uh for instance, we previously did receive a 90 million dollar federal Chrissy grant that was clawed back last year.

Uh, you know, so down the road, you know, if we receive future federal grants or uh as we continue to advance the project, I think a general statement of support of the project is from my perspective as helpful and as value as something that is specific to the actual ballot measure.

I guess but for two reasons.

One is we have a few folks in the queue.

Oh, it's gonna be your last question, and then I know the last time that you all were here, you offer briefings, and so it might be helpful to get a briefing as well from these folks.

One more question.

Oh, uh there's value in a general order of support, and the board hasn't voted on what that might be, so that might be an argument against including.

I'll take all that into consideration.

Definitely we'll get back to you in that in that briefing process.

So thank you, Councilmember Hines.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Councilman Cashman.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks for opening that door.

Um I'm fully supportive of exactly what you're talking about, Mr.

Pace.

Um, of uh front range light rail.

As we discussed, uh I appreciated the briefing very much.

Um I'm still very much thinking about sales tax, and uh uh not that it might not be a worthy place to send some money this way, but there's so many competing needs right now.

So I'm in thought about that.

I would have difficulty citing uh voting in favor of a proclamation that said I support this sales tax today.

But uh as you're talking about a general proclamation in support of uh bringing uh uh front-range light uh front range rail, and I'd be able to support that's good.

I'm gonna have to leave for a conflicting appointment, but thank you for opening that door, Councilman.

Thank you, sir, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Councilman.

Uh Councilwoman Alvides.

I appreciate thank you.

Uh Chair.

And thank you for bringing this, Councilman Watson and the honorables for being here with us today.

I am so excited about this and the potential benefits to my district, being that two of the event stations, one would be very close to my district, and one could be in my district.

Um, but I also would say I would want to have a few more answers before moving this forward, and hopefully by July 13th, we can have some of those.

I will share that uh my you know constituency has dealt with uh trains going through for my whole life, way before I was alive, probably as well.

And um, I'm concerned on how this will impact my district and what those conversations look like.

One thing that has come up time and time again with no investment, is quiet zones.

Um it affects the quality of life of the district of the people in the district, particularly in the baker um neighborhood, and how these dollars can be used is also of interest to me because we have needed rail crossings, so we need rail crossings right now that really divide the community that prevent access from things like grocery stores.

Um we also are waiting on hearing on funding for much needed pedestrian bridges and other things that we need to access the rail.

Um, and the other question around the use of the funds is that uh the baker neighborhood, which a lot of this would go through Platt Park, Westwash Park, all don't have updated neighborhood plans, and so could this funding be used for neighborhood plans?

I know in the proclamation you mentioned comprehensive plan 2040, blueprint Denver, and other local priorities, but those local neighborhood plans haven't been developed yet, and so that's a concern for me.

One question that I haven't asked yet on all my briefings is is will this be electric or will what will the power source be?

Uh thank you, counselor.

We're currently looking at an arrow train set from Siemens that is a hybrid.

Um in the long term, uh theoretically, there could be uh electric trains, there's not a lot of really good equipment yet, but long term with uh battery improvements and and technical technological improvements happening pretty quickly.

Um, that's not out of the question long term.

Um, the Siemens Arrow is hybrid uh electric and fuel.

Great, and then just two more follow-ups that we can follow up on later.

One is it was mentioned affordable uh that it will be affordable.

So, what is the estimated ticket cost, and then household values was one of the criteria that you mentioned, Councilmember Watson.

And although we all want to keep our home values, we also don't want to see displacement and skyrocketing home values, and so as I mentioned, one part of the light rail system is a lot of communities.

The other part are very low-income, highly industrial uh neighborhoods that I would be concerned about the impact of, and so how those dollars are spent and what that looks like, are just going to be concerns.

Yes.

I would like to say that we have scheduled another briefing with your office.

I know we we've had one briefing with you, but we've been talking to your council, so we'll be being viewed as soon as possible.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much, appreciate it.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you so much.

Um councilman Flynn.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh just a quick question.

I don't know the answer to.

I suspect I do, but I could be wrong.

But is this a resolution that under our rules of procedure would have to come to the governance committee to be approved before going to the floor because of because we're taking a position.

I suppose mixed on that because it doesn't advocate that we support us a tax measure.

Basically, says we find that it's conforms with our comprehensive plan and what we're doing.

We have amazing attorneys, so may I ask the committee chair?

Good job.

Thank you, John.

No problem.

Jonathan Griffin, deputy legislative council.

So it wouldn't require a vote.

Uh, in our rules, proclamations don't require votes to move forward.

So bringing it to this committee or really to any committee would cover that requirement.

Yeah.

There's no votes taken on proclamations, it's just required that.

Yes, right.

Right.

You discuss it.

I thought it would have to come to governance committee, not this one.

So I don't believe I mean I think that would be a little bit.

This is a transport.

It makes sense to come to this committee, as you know, as a former as a committee chair, again, it's chairs could kind of work that out.

It doesn't have to go through governance.

I like the reasoning of the rules wrong.

Uh could you talk a little bit about the discussion?

I brought this up with Dr.

Khan when this was at the board meeting uh about uh using sales tax versus property tax, a property tax improvement district, and I gave a history lesson, of course.

Uh that the Moffat tunnel was built through a property tax, the Moffat Tunnel Improvement District, and from 1922 until 1983, property owners in Denver, as Denver was in 1992, but not outside of those boundaries and Jefferson County and Boulder County, Grand, uh all the way up to Moffat County, uh property owners paid an annual property tax assessment on their bill.

In fact, we elected the commissioners, much to the chagrin of the last the last commission with you might remember the mess that was.

But it occurred to me at at Dr.

Cog that uh sales tax is so volatile, subject to change, hard to predict, as we're learning the last two years, while property tax is more much more stable and predictable.

So what was the discussion?

Uh, and I know the decision's not been official yet, but you indicated that that's the direction where we're leaning.

What was the discussion about the overall stability and predictability and reliability of a property tax measure versus uh a sales tax that is so volatile?

Thank you, counselor.

I think there's a couple considerations.

One uh we know that sales taxes there is a heavy uh uh heavy use by visitors and tourists, and they help cover that versus property tax, which are covered by by residents.

Um I think the other reason is it the voters continue to tell us that they prefer to pay sales tax over property tax.

Um it's it consistently performs better in uh in measures as well as in polling.

Um and uh the the voter, I think the the rationale is you only pay for it when when you're spending money, uh but it's we're we're following the direction of what we've seen consistently from from the voters.

Yeah.

Now the district boundaries include uh do not include whole counties, for example.

Uh does it include all of Denver County?

Yes.

Does it include all of Douglas County?

No.

Does it include any of Douglas County?

Yes.

It does.

Okay.

And uh enough said about that.

Thank you.

Uh Adams County parts.

Parts and parts of so what determines the boundaries of how east and west of the corridor.

Yeah, so we we currently have 2.5 million residents within the district.

Uh the district was determined based on permanent station locations, jurisdictions with at least 40 percent of the jurisdiction within five miles of a permanent station location.

Okay, and so if it were sales tax and the voters were to approve it, only those retail businesses within the boundaries would be subject to collecting that from their customers.

Okay, so what was there any discussion about the uh implications of uh of unequal treatment if uh there's a business on one side of just arbitrarily pick up you know Colorado Boulevard in Adams County versus being east of it and not paying it or being west of it and paying it at that's the boundary.

Yeah, you know, absolutely, and that is what happens when you're drawing a district boundary, is it's always going to be discussion of in and out.

I'll I'll share an anecdotal story though.

We passed our our district boundaries, and I got a call from the Werfano County Commissioners.

Wherefano's south of Pueblo, it's where Walsenburg is.

And the commissioner said, Why aren't we in the district?

And I said, Well, you know, we weren't gonna bring a station in the next 25 years to Walsenburg.

And they said, you know, we wanted to stay in the district vote just to stay in line eventually for a station.

So I'd really like to bring you guys up to the Denver metro area and talk to the mayors of some of the rural or the suburban uh communities because you guys approach things much differently.

Uh Los Animos and Trinidad are not the Trinidad is in the district.

We are not bringing uh a north-south line to Trinidad, however, Trinidad is on the southwest chief line.

CDOT tore down their station 25 years ago when they're expanding I-25, and we are providing local return to allow Trinidad to develop a station.

Thank you.

So the sales tax, if passed, were would be collected in Los Animos?

Yes.

Or whatever area of Los Angeles, but not in Guarfano.

Correct.

Because we don't have a proposed station there.

But they want to tag, they want to pay a tax, so God bless them.

They can pay mine.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you all so much for your time.

Um this is not an action item, as you all know, this will come to the floor.

Uh we don't we have four items on consent.

No one has put those off.

And with that, we're adjourned.

Thank you.

You know why we're fanoe county's called.