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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting - October 13, 2026

Council Committees — Tuesday, October 13, 2026

BodyDenver, Colorado

SessionCouncil Committees

DateTuesday, October 13, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:10:04

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.

Speaker 1

0:00

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council.

0:09

Your community planning and housing committee starts now.

Manic Sandable · Speaker 2Inferred

0:18

Thank you for joining us at the Community Planning and Housing Committee.

0:21

I'm Manic Sandable, Chair of the Committee and represent Northwest Denver District Run.

0:27

We have a pretty easy agenda in front of us today.

0:31

I reminded we have cities council to closed yesterday for Indigenous People Ace that makes these A's kind of short.

0:39

But before we get started, let me go around the room and do introductions, and I'll start on my left.

Speaker 3

0:43

Good afternoon, everybody.

0:44

Amanda, so you're district five, I made it.

0:47

It was a touch and go there for a second.

Speaker 4

0:50

Good to see you.

0:52

Good afternoon, Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6.

Speaker 5

0:55

Good afternoon, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver, District 4.

Manic Sandable · Speaker 2Inferred

0:59

Hi, Litras.

1:01

Awesome.

1:02

And we have our partners community planning, not community planning development.

1:06

Human rights and community partnerships here with us today and the floor is yours.

Unassigned speaker

1:16

And

Speaker 6

1:16

I'm Heidi Rodriguez.

1:17

I am the Marketing and Communications Manager for HRCP.

Unassigned speaker

1:22

You want

Speaker 7

1:22

to go

Speaker 6

1:23

ahead and get started?

Speaker 8

1:24

Yeah, we're

Speaker 6

1:24

ready.

Speaker 9

1:25

Okay.

Speaker 7

1:26

So we are here today to go over a change in the citywide mediation service vendors that you all have requested, and that we want to make sure that everyone is informed about.

1:43

So as you know, HRCP, we administer the mediation services at no costs for conflicts involving cities, city and county of Denver employees, community members, neighborhood groups.

1:57

The program offers voluntary community-based dispute resolution outside of a court system.

2:04

So we do not accept cases or the vendors do not accept cases that are currently involved in court proceedings.

2:11

Who can request mediation?

2:13

City agencies, including city council, our boards and commissions, RNOs, like you all are familiar with, HOAs, and Denver residents that are interacting with city services that require some type of conflict-based mediation.

2:29

We can kind of go through the process a little bit later if anyone wants to dive into that.

2:34

But basically, a form is submitted to HRCP.

2:38

We review that form and the eligibility, and then we assign it to one of our mediation vendors.

2:46

After that, the assigned vendor contacts the involved parties to coordinate scheduling and next steps.

2:54

And that's for community members.

2:58

The citywide mediation services program background.

3:02

So this is just a high-level background.

3:04

I'll dig into some of the details later in our slides.

3:07

But this is a service that was uh funded by HRCP and available to no cost for city agencies and community members.

3:16

Between 2012 and 2026, Find Solution was the sole provider for these services.

3:24

Between that time, 2.1 or $2 million was awarded to Find Solutions.

3:29

In 2025, HRCP reviewed the program utilization.

3:33

We gathered input from high-use agencies, and then that informed the future service model that you see today.

3:40

In 2025, there were nine proposals and three vendors were selected.

3:46

So in April of 2026 is when our three vendor model was officially launched.

3:53

For some historical context for you all, um, when we had the one vendor model, it was a 14,750 month retainer.

4:03

Um per year.

4:08

So from 2022 to present, that was just a monthly retainer every month.

4:13

It didn't change.

4:15

Agencies worked directly with Fine Solutions, and HRCP managed the contract and payments.

4:21

What it caused was some limited visibility for HRCP into the caseload hours, data, some of the utilization cost.

4:30

Um and although feedback was generally positive regarding the responsiveness and the mediation itself, we really did identify some opportunities for us to improve our record keeping the outcome tracking and overall just mediator diversity.

4:46

So why 2025?

4:50

Why was that the year?

4:52

Um is that the contract itself was ending with the sole contractor.

Unassigned speaker

5:00

The mediation was widely used citywide, so more agencies were beginning to access this service.

Speaker 7

5:06

That same year, find solutions requested a retainer increase, which was not an option for HRCP, and the retainer model limited our visibility into caseload outcomes and utilizations, like I said earlier.

5:22

We identified an opportunity to better align those costs with actual services rather than a flat rate contract.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Contracts And Procurement████████████████████████████████████36%

Community Engagement██████████████████████████26%

Data Management█████████████████17%

Budget Equity Analysis█████████9%

Mediation Services████████8%

Procedural████4%

Summary of Proceedings

Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting - October 13, 2026

The Community Planning and Housing Committee met on October 13, 2026, to receive a briefing from Human Rights and Community Partnerships (HRCP) on the overhaul of the citywide mediation service model and to approve two consent contracts for homeless services. The discussion heavily focused on the operational and administrative challenges stemming from the transition from a single vendor to a three-vendor system.

Consent Calendar

26-1492: Amended a contract with Volunteers of America Colorado Branch to add $852,000 (new total $3,413,433) and extend the end date to 12-31-2028 for rapid rehousing. Approved by consent.
26-1493: Amended a contract with The Salvation Army to add $40,000 (new total $1,157,803) and extend the end date to 12-31-2027 for rapid resolution services. Approved by consent.

Briefing & Discussion: Citywide Mediation Services (Council Presentation 26-1499)

Heidi Rodriguez and Perla Gaylor from HRCP presented the new three-vendor model for mediation services, replacing the long-standing sole provider, Find Solutions. The annual program funding of $177,000 is now split evenly at $59,000 between three vendors: Find Solutions, Paradigm Public Affairs, and Project Mediation Pros. HRCP stated the change was driven by the need for better data on outcomes, utilization, and mediator diversity.

Key Council Concerns and Positions:

Contract Placement: Councilmember Amanda Sawyer strongly criticized the administration for placing the management of this contract with HRCP, arguing it should be managed by General Services. She called it "a terrible management decision" and stated the current process was "not fair" to HRCP staff, who should not have to manage a general services function.
Institutional Knowledge: Councilmembers Sandoval, Kashmann, and Romero Campbell expressed concern about the loss of institutional knowledge and effective service continuity, particularly with Find Solutions, which has deep relationships with city council offices and complex community cases (e.g., the DPS coordinating committee and Good Neighbor Agreements). HRCP clarified that HOST maintains a separate contract with Find Solutions for Good Neighbor Agreements.
Funding Gaps: HRCP reported that Find Solutions was already 80% spent on its $59,000 allocation for 2026, leaving roughly $8,000 for the remainder of the year and raising concerns about service capacity. Councilmember Sandoval proposed collecting discretionary funds from council offices to supplement the Find Solutions contract. Councilmember Watson questioned whether the base funding of $59,000 per vendor was sufficient to meet City Council's ongoing mediation needs.
Service Definitions & Costs: HRCP distinguished mediation from facilitation, noting that facilitation is more expensive and is not currently scoped into the vendor contracts. A single facilitation session was estimated at $2,000, while six mediation cases averaged $775 total. HRCP noted that facilitation requests are putting avoidable pressure on the limited program funding.
Liaison & Communication: HRCP requested a designated point of contact from City Council for better communication on referrals and utilization. Chair Sandoval suggested each council office delegate a council aide as their primary point of contact.

Key Outcomes

Consent Items Approved: Resolutions 26-1492 and 26-1493 were approved unanimously.
No Formal Vote on Model: The briefing was informational; no formal action was taken on the mediation contract model itself.
Future Budget Actions: Councilmember Sandoval committed to leading an effort to gather remaining discretionary funds from council offices to support the Find Solutions contract in the current budget year.
Data & Reporting: HRCP committed to surveying mediation requesters and user agencies to establish performance benchmarks and improve data transparency for the 2027 contract year.

Meeting Transcript

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council. Your community planning and housing committee starts now. Thank you for joining us at the Community Planning and Housing Committee. I'm Manic Sandable, Chair of the Committee and represent Northwest Denver District Run. We have a pretty easy agenda in front of us today. I reminded we have cities council to closed yesterday for Indigenous People Ace that makes these A's kind of short. But before we get started, let me go around the room and do introductions, and I'll start on my left. Good afternoon, everybody. Amanda, so you're district five, I made it. It was a touch and go there for a second. Good to see you. Good afternoon, Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6. Good afternoon, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver, District 4. Hi, Litras. Awesome. And we have our partners community planning, not community planning development. Human rights and community partnerships here with us today and the floor is yours. And I'm Heidi Rodriguez. I am the Marketing and Communications Manager for HRCP. You want to go ahead and get started? Yeah, we're ready. Okay. So we are here today to go over a change in the citywide mediation service vendors that you all have requested, and that we want to make sure that everyone is informed about. So as you know, HRCP, we administer the mediation services at no costs for conflicts involving cities, city and county of Denver employees, community members, neighborhood groups. The program offers voluntary community-based dispute resolution outside of a court system. So we do not accept cases or the vendors do not accept cases that are currently involved in court proceedings. Who can request mediation? City agencies, including city council, our boards and commissions, RNOs, like you all are familiar with, HOAs, and Denver residents that are interacting with city services that require some type of conflict-based mediation. We can kind of go through the process a little bit later if anyone wants to dive into that. But basically, a form is submitted to HRCP. We review that form and the eligibility, and then we assign it to one of our mediation vendors. After that, the assigned vendor contacts the involved parties to coordinate scheduling and next steps. And that's for community members. The citywide mediation services program background. So this is just a high-level background. I'll dig into some of the details later in our slides. But this is a service that was uh funded by HRCP and available to no cost for city agencies and community members. Between 2012 and 2026, Find Solution was the sole provider for these services. Between that time, 2.1 or $2 million was awarded to Find Solutions. In 2025, HRCP reviewed the program utilization. We gathered input from high-use agencies, and then that informed the future service model that you see today. In 2025, there were nine proposals and three vendors were selected. So in April of 2026 is when our three vendor model was officially launched. For some historical context for you all, um, when we had the one vendor model, it was a 14,750 month retainer. Um per year. So from 2022 to present, that was just a monthly retainer every month.

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