Welcome to this meeting of the mayor and Denver City Council.

At this weekly session, city agencies brief the mayor and council members on various proposals and projects across the city.

This meeting of the mayor and city council members begins now.

We still can't hear the music.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, I'd love to do it.

And we should add some cities.

Good morning.

So we're about to.

Council members, great to see you.

We are live.

Welcome to Mayor Council this Tuesday morning.

We will start with some introductions.

Councilman Sawyer, you want to start us off?

Okay, sorry.

Uh hi, I'm Anda Sawyer, District Five.

Sarah Purdy representing the city at large.

Serena Gonzalez, also representing the city at Gonzalez Council.

Also representing the city at large.

Kevin Flynn, South West Denver District Two.

Good morning, Jamie Torres, District Three.

Wonderful.

Great to see you all this morning.

Um, we'll start in with announcements if there are any announcements that people want to share for the listening public other than Councilman Gonzalez's criteria's announcement already this morning.

I would.

Yes, Council President.

Thank you so much.

And Mayor, I want to thank you for coming up last night during our our three thirty session, uh being able to share a proclamation, thanking city employees for the work that they've been doing largely on our migrant response and uh House a Thousand efforts.

But um really it it it it rolls in how much work city employees have been doing since the beginning of COVID.

Um and as we're coming up to two months away from uh the four-year anniversary, I think we all remember where we were on March thirteenth, twenty twenty, and um just how eerie that was and and what that kick started in so I just want to thank all my colleagues um and uh and our city employees um again for for all of their dedication to this city.

So thank you so much.

Uh I wanted to add to that.

I thought you all did a um tremendous job with that.

It was so moving.

I saw there were a lot of tears in the audience as you shared the stories of how grateful you were and the impact you've had.

I think the city employees really felt seen and recognized, and I thought you all did a beautiful job.

So thank you so much for doing that.

Um other announcements.

Okay, it's a full business crowd this morning, ready to get onward.

Um, we do have um I want to do an update on uh migrant supports and services today and update you a little bit on our uh work last week in DC on the conference of mayors and some on federal legislation, and so uh I wanted to do an update there and then um uh take any questions or thoughts people may have.

That's the only topic I have on the agenda this morning, and then we have uh we do have an executive session with uh city attorney's office.

So uh for the update, uh I was in DC last week for the U.S.

conference of mayors, which gave us a chance both to visit with uh mayors from the country around this uh need, but also with leaders from the White House and also with uh senators uh who are involved in the drafting of the legislation to try to work on a uh solution, we hope on this uh need.

So I want to update you on a couple of fronts.

As you all know, we've been talking regularly about the three things that we think Denver needs to be successful here.

One is increased number of federal dollars to help support us and welcoming people.

Uh this is our most urgent need now as we look at the prospect of having to make budget cuts.

The best way for us to reduce those cuts would be to actually get federal support for these services.

So we're pushing very hard on that.

The second was on increased work authorization, as you all know.

We had work authorization that was done through uh temporary protective status by the Secretary of Homeland Security for our Venezuelan immigrants who arrived before August 1st, and so that meant through the summer and the fall, most of the folks that arrived could get access to work, which is why they were successfully integrating into the city, getting jobs, getting apartments.

Um as we got into October and November in our response, almost all the arrivals that came to the city did not anymore have access to work authorization, which was why we started seeing encampments, for instance, for the first time sprout out in November and December.

So the second thing we've really pushed on is on is on expanded and expedited work authorization so folks would have it when they arrive in Denver, not start a one year to six year process to get it once they arrive in Denver.

That's been very challenging for us.

So those are the two.

And the third one has been some ability to create a system of coordinated entry for migrants when they arrive, so it's not just being sent to a city that you get put on a bus to without knowing why you're going there.

Um so those are our big three.

I think the uh causes for excitement are our conversations with the Senate sponsors and other that are working on this legislation seem to indicate that we believe that both of the two things we've asked for will be in an introduced Senate bill that will come out this week or next week.

That would be both federal dollars that would support cities such as ours, and would be some path to accelerated work authorization.

So uh that is encouraging news, and we also know that that bill when introduced will have bipartisan support in the Senate.