Welcome back to this biweekly meeting of the budget and policy committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the discussion as the Budget and Policy Committee starts now.

Hi.

Hi.

Hello.

Wait, just a minute.

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There we go.

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I think we're good now.

Hi, I'm Diana Romero Campbell, and we are I represent Southeast Denver and District 4, and we are at the budget and policy meeting today on September 14th.

Thank you all for being here and joining us.

I think we are gonna go online.

We have a few council members that are online and having maybe a little um trouble connecting.

So let's go ahead and do our introductions here, and then we will go back online.

And I will start with the birthday man himself to my right.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Kevin Flynn.

Amanda Sawyer, District Five.

Councilwoman Stacey Gilmore, District 11.

Sarah Nuggonzales, can Councilmember at large.

Darrell Watson, following District 9.

Jamie Torres, District.

And let's go ahead and go online to Councilmember Sandoval.

And have been promoted.

Okay, well, I would like to recognize Councilmember Sandoval online with us.

Um and we are working on the technology right now.

But thank you for being with us today.

Um I turn it over to you, Councilmember Gilmer.

Uh well, thank you so much.

Good afternoon.

Uh Councilwoman Stacey Gilmore, and uh I am honored to be here in uh budget and policy committee.

I have Meredith Glitz, my senior council aide here with me, uh sending regards from Councilwoman Lewis.

Um she had an emergency yesterday and unfortunately uh isn't able to be with us uh here this afternoon, but she's um doing all right, and we will um hopefully see her on Wednesday in committee.

Uh but we have um I believe briefed everyone on council about this bill and then numerous agencies, and so this is a sex and gender identity protection ordinance, and we will go ahead and go to the second slide with the agenda, please, and we um will talk about why it's needed, uh, what does it do, key provisions?

There's four of them, community support that uh we have had uh from the very get-go of even talking about this, and then the timeline.

And our next slide is you know, really why is this ordinance needed?

And uh as we've seen several states across the country really embrace regressive and biased policies, transgender and gender expansive people seek safety, dignity, affirmation, and opportunity in Denver, and where we've seen the alarming political climate and increasing targeting of transgender and gender expansive people.

Our city must act to protect the people who live, work, and recreate in Denver.

And this policy, as I said, was shaped by the direct input of community leaders and constituents to address their concerns.

And so what does this ordinance do?

As a broad summary, this ordinance aims to reduce unnecessary sex and or gender documentation and record keeping, prevents city resources from being weaponized against trans and gender expansive people, and prohibits the city and county of Denver from sharing information that would advance investigations, which would target trans and gender expansive people.

The ordinance uh overview to flesh it out a little bit more around what uh it means, uh, it will apply to voluntary collection and disclosure of an individual's actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, which for ease of reference we'll refer to as the SOGI data.

I want to undercore that uh mandatory collection and disclosure of SOGI data that is required by federal, state, or city law is exempt from these requirements.

Moreover, voluntary collection and disclosure disclosure of SOCI data that is necessary to effectuate an important city interest is also exempt from these requirements.

And that includes but is not limited to human services, health services, behavioral health services, criminal justice, shelter management, and matters related to grant applications, compliance, reporting, or management.

And this ordinance is proposed to go into effect and require city entities to come into full compliance on January 1st of 2027.

But we also want to note that this date might shift slightly as we hear from agencies about whether that'd be feasible on their end.

And we haven't heard anything definitive yet, but we just want to put that out there that it might shift slightly.

And so our next slide talks about the key provisions.

This is the first one reducing unnecessary documentation and record keeping.

And so to get specific on this provision, it will ensure that no department, agency, board, commission, officer, employee, or contractor of the city shall require the collection or disseminate personal information regarding an individual's actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

We repeat those words in this document because it is very important that we stay in alignment with the state and that we've talked quite a bit about the meaning of these terms.

And so you'll see that continued.

And again, unless required by federal, state or city law regulation, or unless necessary to effectuate effectuate an important city interest.

Alrighty.

If SOGI data is required to be collected, the information shall only be retained for 30 days, excluding information needed to comply with the federal, state or city law or regulation or to effectuate an important city interest.

Thereafter, any non-excluded information related to SOGI data must be permanently destroyed from any city records.