Thanks for joining us for this weekly joint meeting of the mayor and Denver City Council.

Follow along as the mayor and city council members hear updates from city agencies and projects, discuss important city matters, and hear about what's happening across the Mile High City.

Join the discussion with your elected officials starting now.

Uh commiserating uh guarantee over here.

Good morning.

Great to see you all.

Welcome to Mayor Council.

Thanks for joining us on this Tuesday.

We have a full agenda this morning, both general session and executive sessions, so we're glad to jump in.

Good morning.

Lucky District 7.

Nice perfect 10.

Good morning, everybody.

Sedan Gonzalez Fichettes.

I'm one of your council members at large.

Good morning, Amanda Sawyer, District Five.

Jamie Torres was Denver District 3.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District Four.

Good morning, Amanda Sanova, Northwest Denver District Five.

Uh great.

Are there any announcements that members have for the listening public for each other before we jump into our general session?

Yes, Councilman Sweden.

Just want to remind everyone that our biannual community cleanup day.

It is coming up Sunday, September 28th.

So twice a year, volunteers in the community come and meet us at Montclair Rec Center at 8:30 in the morning, have a little breakfast, get some supplies, and then head out into our community and we repaint bus benches and clean our parks.

So last year I think we had over 400 hours of volunteer hours in our community.

I'm really excited to keep it going.

So join us 8:30 a.m.

September 28th, which is like three Sundays from now, two Sundays from now, something like that, at Montclair Wreck Center.

Thanks.

Thank you so much, Councilman Gonzales with Jerusalem.

Thank you.

This coming Wednesday on September 10th, which is tomorrow, myself and the distinguished distinguished gentleman, Councilman Cashman will be hosting the first of many uh neighborhood engagement workshops.

This is to work on the registered neighborhood organization, um, school ordinance changes that might come forward, but this is really just our time to engage with the community.

And so we're starting in Southwest Denver.

It will be this tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.

at Westwood Community Center, 1000 South Lowell Boulevard.

We will be providing a light dinner and some refreshments.

And so we hope you know bring bring all your energy and and come and join us for this workshop.

It will be engaging.

It will not just be us speaking at people.

We want to hear from uh hear from our community.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Uh Councilman Alvidres.

Thank you.

Um this Thursday, September 11th in the evening at 6 30 p.m.

Both Denver Parks and uh the National Women's Soccer League will be having an open house at Burned Down at 476 South Broadway.

Um so come there if you want to talk about parks or the stadium.

And then Saturday, we have a full pack day of events in District 7.

We're starting with a pancake breakfast at 9 a.m.

at Alamo Placido Park with the Alamo Placita neighbors, and then we have 11 a.m.

Lincoln Broadway registered neighborhood corridor is having their summer festival.

Um, and then we'll end the day at Oktoberfest on South Pearl Street.

So if you want a really fun Saturday hangout in District 7.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Councilman Vidras.

I think we have a couple more.

Councilwoman Lewis.

Go around.

Good to see you.

Good to see you too.

Good morning.

Um sorry, Councilman Heinz.

I know you're lying.

Okay.

Um so I wanted to make a few announcements.

Uh the first one is Saturday, September 13th.

They park you park open house at the Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center.

Um, love to see you all there.

Um, several colleagues and I are doing the Budget Book Club, which I'm really excited about.

That's Councilwoman Torres, Heinz, and Hines, Councilwoman Gonzalez Gutierrez, Councilwoman Albidas, Councilman Cashman, Councilwoman Parity, and as of this morning, President They said of all.

So I'm looking forward to the budget.

I know it's so cute, right?

So excited.

Um, to the budget book club.

Uh, we are going to do all things budget and figure out um how we get ourselves together.

And then September 10th from 6 to 7, uh, we will have our first virtual meeting.

So I apologize to Councilwoman Gonzalez Gutierrez and Councilman Cashman, as I didn't know you all had an event on the same day, but we'll get ourselves together for the future budget book club.

Um for this first one, we were just going to learn how to read the budget book and look at priorities, and then for September 27th, we will have a budget happy hour, and then on October 4th, we will have a convening of the budget proposal.

So looking forward to that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Hides.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Um, this is an action packed week, as we've already heard, um uh today at 5 p.m.

in the central library, uh, there will be a stakeholder group for the 5280 Trail Akama segment.

Um, so in Golden Triangle, um, and also uh, so it's uh open house.

Uh people can come learn about what's happening with the 5280 trail and uh and the connection um uh from 10th and acoma over uh to Sunken Gardens.

Um and uh so that's at the uh central Library today from 5 to 7.

Also, interestingly, there's uh an organization called Wheel the World uh that is here in Denver that um they travel all over the world.

They're um uh looking at accessibility um for various venues and cities.

Um they happen to be in Denver this week.

Um so um uh if you are uh um of the a disability community, please um do look up Wheel the World.

Uh they are here in Denver and they are um asking uh those who are uh here in Denver to uh to participate in their events.

Um Councilmember Lewis already mentioned the the budget book uh meeting tomorrow.

Um there's uh the Civic Center Conservancy is having cocktails in the park uh Thursday at 5.

Um and so sorry that's uh September 11th is a busy day.

We're also the district 10 office um along with uh Denver is uh is hosting a um uh an open social meet and greet with um local restaurants and um and community members and that is uh Thursday September 11th from 4 to 5:30.

Um Teller Elementary is having their um uh their block party on Friday from uh 3 30 to 10.

So if you are interested in uh you live in Cargers Park, um that's always uh been a fun event.

Um we have uh Denver Department of Public Health and Environment here on our title screen.

They have an event uh this Saturday called Paws and Pints.

Um, there was fantastic for you.

I'll give you a pint.

Well, I just want you to know that last Saturday, I have it on the wrong week.

So I'm so sorry.

No, I'm sorry that I didn't I didn't get to go.

So um I'm glad that we have DDPH D P H E here to uh to set my calendar straight.

So uh that's it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks so much.

Uh Councilman Watson, are you sure?

Um District 9, one event tomorrow uh from 6 to 8 p.m.

uh the Massissa Curtis Park swimming pool and cultural art discussion with community and Denver Parks and Rec.

Um, encouraging neighbors to come out.

We'll be meeting at the armory at 2565 Curtis.

Um this is an important discussion for community.

Encouraging folks to come out, engage and provide your feedback to Denver Parks and Rec and Denver Arts and Venues about um Cisa Curtis Park and our arts collection around the pool.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

President Proteo.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted to invite people to come to the El Garito 5K on Sunday, September 15th.

I know you're excited.

I'm excited.

Um the El Garito 5K is um it starts at 9 uh p.m.

if you want to do walk up registration, it's 7 30 on the Aurari.

Did I say PM?

You said.

Oh my goodness.

9 a.m.

Um thank you for listening.

Uh at 9 a.m.

on Sunday at the Auraria campus.

Um the El Garito 5K um is a celebration of Mexican Independence Day.

It's something near and dear to my heart.

It's uh my parents uh started it, Richard and Esther Romero um El Jete, as he was known there, um, with a group of friends, and they did it for they ran it for about 20 years.

It uh tapered off during um COVID, but this will be the 30th anniversary, and so um would hope to see people there.

Um, I know I'm sponsoring, I believe, Councilwoman Alvidaras and uh Councilwoman our council president Sandoval as well.

Um it's just a really nice special thing.

Um, and it starts with a bell, as Father Hidalgo would ring the bell for um the independence.

So um I don't know how much of a history lesson they will give at the beginning, but when my dad was running it, he'd, you know, people wanted to start racing, and he'd be like, and then tell me more about the history um before they rang the bell for the run.

So it's on the Aurari campus this Sunday um the 14th.

Uh walk-up registration is uh starts at 7 30 or go online.

Thank you.

Lots happening in our city.

Councilman Tines, one more time.

Um Councilman Watson, no, I'm not done.

So I forgot one uh because my fluster with pause and pints.

Um this weekend is also the Spirit of Japan tour.

So Friday night, Saturday um at Sakurai Square.

Um, please come to Sakura Square and learn a bit more about uh uh the relationship we have with Japan and uh and and a bit about the culture, uh the Japanese culture.

I will be there hand cutting sushi.

So come on over.

It's gonna be me with a large knife.

What could go wrong?

Yes.

Madam President.

Thank you.

So tomorrow I'm ending our series of yoga free yoga.

So come join.

I will not be there, I have to admit.

My staff will be there from six to seven because the sun sets at 7 15, so you'll still be in the sun.

And it's been great.

I think last time we had 70 participants in the dome.

And so we did circle, and it's just free, it's all ages, it's all.

We had a woman who lived across the street who came in a walker, and she just sat there and breathed with us for an hour and said it was the most interaction she had had with people in the whole entire month.

And then on Saturday, we are cleaning up Rocky Mountain Park.

Off of 46th in Irving, meet us at the frog.

For those who don't know, you'll just meet me at the frog.

Meet my team.

I will also not be there.

I'm a lot going on in my personal room.

Um amazing.

Thank you for all that you do in addition to governing the city.

Um all right, so we're uh delighted to jump in.

As I mentioned, we have uh three presentations in our general session, and then we have two executive session items.

Um we are delighted to have three of our executive directors here, both Karen McGowan from Department of Public Health, uh Joan Clark from Department of Arts and Rec and Deep Khan from uh economic development.

And so, as you remember, uh, we will have each of them present probably five or six minutes on overview of just the personnel impacts of the decisions that they made and how they're thinking about the structure and strategy of what they want their departments to do and where they will go.

Uh as you know, our budget book will be final next week.

Um we are doing individual briefings with each of the council members this week to preview that with each of you, and so they won't have all the final numbers and details.

This is really the last of our presentations, our three rounds of public presentations focused on departments um with the impact of the personnel restructuring.

So I wanted to give them the chance to share some of those ideas with you in anticipation of a much longer budget briefing coming in the weeks ahead.

So, Karen, we're gonna let you lead off.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Yes.

Hi everyone.

Good morning.

And as you remember, we'll do all three, then we'll do questions at the end.

So uh hi Karen McGowan, director of DDPAG.

Just a reminder of uh what we do, kind of the basic things, uh protecting, improving, and promoting public health and environmental quality, uh, delivering core public health services, everything from tobacco cessation to behavioral health, uh, street engagement services, animal shelter, uh, the coroner, um, reducing public health and environmental risks, uh, mitigating impacts to our underserved communities, uh, in a lot of places by leveraging grant funds.

Uh, we have a lot of grant funds in our department, probably more than other departments that you're familiar with, and prioritizing the efficient and consistent management of our contract services and supplies.

Um, this is something that I shared with our staff uh in a town hall meeting because a lot of folks were wanting to know like as you're thinking about reductions, what is your strategy gonna be?

How are you gonna make decisions?

And you can see this is a very busy Venn diagram where obviously we're thinking how are we gonna protect core public health services, how are we gonna make sure that we are meeting the mayoral goals and priorities that have been set forth, looking at the various funding sources that we have.

So we have grant funds, we have SRF, we have an enterprise fund, we have general fund, making sure that we're consistent with the values that we've developed as a department, which are rooted in equity, diversity, and inclusion and environmental justice, and then making sure that we are meeting all of our legally mandated requirements as a public health department.

Then, um, kind of the process that we the leadership team went through to kind of minimize to minimize, not kind of to minimize the number of folks that would be impacted by our reductions.

We first looked at reducing contracts, services, and supply budgets.

We eliminated vacant positions.

Uh every time a position came up, we asked ourselves, do we need to fill it?

Uh if we need to fill it, is it that particular position?

Can we repurpose it to something that we know we might be missing?

Um there is a rule, uh, an HR rule that requires you to eliminate your probationary positions.

So that was done.

We tried to shift as many folks as we could to alternate grant funding sources like our grants.

So it was still applicable for a grant source and we had additional grant funding.

We've shifted folks onto that.

And then finally, um, considering layouts.

So uh department as a whole, we have about 312 positions.

We moved 20 positions to alternate funding sources.

We eliminated 15 vacant positions as they came up, and we uh eventually had to lay off 16 positions.

Some of the, I think, uh major impacts or changes that you will see for the department, um, a different way that we're gonna do investigations for restaurants, for example.

We're gonna try to do those that more risky or complaint-based and reward uh those that are uh when we go investigate, always have good outcomes and good um reports.

You will probably see uh a change for DAP and our ability to respond to lower level animal complaints like a loose dog not leashed in a park.

Uh, it's gonna be harder for us to make those types of calls.

Um, but what we really tried to do, if you go to the next slide, thanks, is I we did not eliminate entire programs.

We tried to strategically cut across all of our divisions to figure out how to minimize the total impact and still meet the majority uh our our core public health services and legally mandated services.

You can see that we cut the most in the executive director's office.

You will see that emergency management, uh public health emergency responses in here that did not get cut.

It is entirely grant-funded, except for my division director, who for savings right now is my division director for both emergency management and response and the medical examiner's office.

Next slide.

So this is how we were structured before uh we thought about how to restructure and resize.

This is what we look like now.

And I will say this is not our final destination.

Uh, when I started here last year, we kicked off a new strategic planning uh strategy, and so we're actually just finishing up the strategic plan.

Uh, and we're gonna couple that now with okay, so we've had some impacts.

Does the strategic plan still is it still right sized for us?

Does it make sense?

And if we marry strategic plan with the reduction we've the reductions we've had, do we need to think about restructuring and reorganizing?

So TBD, stay tuned.

You'll probably hear more from us about some changes based on the some all of these things that have happened in the last year.

And that's just a thank you so much, Karen.

We're gonna let you stand by for questions.

I know you have a staff meeting to go to soon after, so we'll try to get too quickly by where we'll bring Joel in up and indeed.

Thank you so much, Karen.

Morning, Mayor, members of council.

Joel Clark, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation, uh here with you today to run through my slides.

Um, so uh as you can see up on the screen, uh, as we went through this, we kind of focused on these four core areas.

So a focus on our core services as a parks and recreation department, we're really focusing on minimizing impacts to community with all of our front-facing um activities in our parks and our rec centers uh for youth for our active older adult community, for finding efficiencies, places where especially a department is as large as we are has silos, and so were there repetitive um services and and uh things that we could be more efficient at.

And then when it came to our vacant positions, we've really been focused now for over a year on trying to have the right positions vacant.

And so every time any position anywhere in the org chart, even before the hiring freeze became vacant, we would hesitate before filling it.

We would ask, do we absolutely have to have it right now?

And that left us with a larger pool of vacant positions so that we could shuffle to get to the ones that we really needed and that were mission critical at the right time of the year, and gave us more flexibility as we headed into then which of those vacant positions were abolished.

So it wasn't just a blunt instrument on our vacant positions of, hey, this is what's vacant and it's going to be eliminated.

It really has been a shuffling that's been going on for over a year to try to get us to the right positions that will be felt leased by our residents.

So a couple of oh, stay on that side for a little while longer and we'll do a couple of and I'm done.

There we go.

So a couple of examples as we go through this.

We also really tried to focus on the administrative side, the behind-the-scenes support staff and protect our frontline employees and those doing that direct service delivery out in our parks and our in our rec centers.

A couple of examples of where we were finding efficiencies, for instance, right now, prior to this, and we're still working on that full conversion, but there were two different phone numbers you would have to call if you wanted to permit space within our parks and recreation system.

If you wanted, you know, the community room at the Carlo Madison Rec Center, that was a different phone number and a different team than if you wanted the City Park Pavilion, you know, just uh just outside in the park.

So we're combining kind of our all of that into one, which will deliver better resident services, one number to call, one team to work with, uh no matter what you're trying to permit from our parks and recreation department.

Um, and so we're able to find some efficiencies there.

Another example is I've talked uh with all of you before through the budget process about our investments in central control when it comes to irrigation, and there are a ton of benefits to central control.

Central control gives us uh a high level of control over when we're watering, and so it can automatically sense the weather and the rain and not be watering in the middle of a rainstorm like our historic systems have done.

Um, can also be controlled, they call it central control because uh my staff can control it from an iPad, even from their phone.

So if there's a break and someone calls in and says, hey, there's a broken sprinkler head and it's sprouting water, they can turn it off centrally instead of having to go out to that box.

Um, the other advantage to that is this system gives feedback back centrally uh to a computer screen that tells us what's going on across the system.

And so instead of having to have you know a whole bunch of employees who all they're doing is walking the park looking for those problems and then developing their work plan for the day, which is a lot of windshield time and a lot of time kind of doing the inspection.

We now have folks who can centrally look at that, come up with a work plan so that when our tech shows up in the morning, they've already said, hey, here is your here are the five parts you need to get to today.

Here's the specific sprinkler heads that need work or the the place where there's a break, and so we're able to um again shift there from more people doing inspections to fewer employees because there's one centralized kind of creating that work plan for the folks getting out into the field.

So uh another example where we've uh restructured a little bit is we had volunteer programs happening in two different places in our silos, and we've combined all of those efforts, and we're also looking not just at volunteerism in our parks as you know, something where someone comes to us and says, Hey, I'd like to have a corporate work day, and what we'd like to do is this thing is we're coming, we've embedded that more firmly with our operations folks for them to come up with a list of what are our highest needs, what are the things that we're struggling to get to during the busy times of the year, so that when people come to us, we turn around and say, Hey, here's what we need.

Which of these can you help us with instead of you know just saying, hey, how would you like to spend your day volunteering?

So, really um combining that operational thing uh focus with kind of the volunteer programs that were going.

A couple of notes on on the right-hand side, um, our FTE equivalent.

Um, this is a number that's a little deceptive for us because we have the largest on-call um workforce in the city.

Um, so rough numbers, we had about 700 full-time employees, and we have about 2500 total job titles.

Um, it takes a lot of 14-year-old pool attendance to add up to one full-time employee.

So you'll see the equivalent number there, but it really is a that doesn't tell the full story.

And you know, what we're here today talking about was is really our full our FTE workforce.

Um, our on-call budget uh will, you'll see as part of the uh budget book on the 15th.

Um so this was really the moves that we made within that 700 um FTE base, just as a reminder for that.

Um, and then you can go to the next slide.

Um, this is just uh our our current work chart um showing kind of how we are um structured from a very high level, you know, again 2500 job titles, uh our full work chart would take this entire table, but this is kind of uh divisionally where we are, and you'll see kind of uh we've worked over time to get really our operation, uh, all of our operational stuff in one place, and then you'll see kind of on the right under the ED, the finance, marketing, the policy, and strategic initiatives that cut across uh department and support all of the different divisions, our planning, design, and construction, which used to be embedded in one of our silos, but really is doing everything across all the planning uh design and construction across all that is pulled out mountain parks and forestry, um, you know, are kind of their own um divisions.

They have uh their own, you know, the mountain parks are geographically and it's always different place.

Forestry is one of our positions that's called out in the city charter.

Um, and then you'll see down below, kind of more our operational focus under our uh deputy.

So uh those were my slides and presentation for today.

Happy to stick around for questions.

Thank you so much, Joel, and we'll grab you back in a minute for questions, and thank you, Adib.

Um just a preview for council members.

We have two exec session items, both of which are fairly significant.

I know we have 10 third committee meetings, and so we'll probably get through deep and then either do a few questions, or if you want to source all your questions, we can take them and then roll them into briefings this week, next weekend committee hearings from the committee briefing, but we'll we'll see what questions you all have when we get through a D.

But just want to fragment by seven or eight minutes that we should probably start transitioning through exact session.

Morning, council members.

I'll give you a quick overview on the philosophy that we had and how we approached the budget to give you an idea of kind of the thinking behind uh our decisions, and then a little bit of an update on kind of where we're at with the organizational chart.

So for us, you know, we went through a kind of a very significant process to have a strategy in place where we wanted to essentially check all the boxes as we went through our budget reductions and made decisions based on this strategy itself.

And it really started with the uh the kind of headline of minimizing the reductions to staff.

That was a critical component for us.

Uh, we spent a lot of time and energy on finding creative solutions, uh, also seeking additional dollars from outside sources to be able to fund programs and identify partnerships with other agencies to be able to retain staff positions wherever possible.

Um so that was a key and critical component of our decision making.

The next is around, I think for everybody, as you heard from Joel and Karen was really around operational efficiency.

How do we make things run better, smoother?

How do we reduce some red tape wherever possible?

How do we make sure that we're not fragmented?

And also, how do we make sure that we're putting the dollars and time and energy into the places that are needed most?

Uh so we have designated priority populations, uh, which are essentially our highest need populations across the board, our low to moderate income individuals, our veterans, individuals facing disabilities, uh folks from different uh backgrounds, which constitute from a federal government standpoint priority populations.

So a lot of our workforce grants are designated to serve priority populations, and then we also have our priority places, which is our nest neighborhoods as well as downtown from a key economic driver standpoint.

We want to reduce that fragmentation.

For example, our workforce division works a lot with employers, uh, and we are able to kind of work with employers on hiring, but then we have the same relationship with employers on the business development front.

So, how do we consolidate that work?

So we're not having multiple relationships within one agency for the same customer.

Um, and then on top of that was then that alignment piece.

If we're gonna be able to prioritize our places, our people that we want to serve and reduce fragmentation, we need to align.

We also have had a lot of critiques around our top heavy structure at Dito.

That's something I've heard before I started and throughout my time here.

So we took a keen look at that, uh, prioritizing economic growth as the priority of our mission through job creation and attraction and retention, and ensuring I hear so much from businesses about how difficult it can be sometimes to work through the city.

And so we get a lot of work in that.

We haven't really had a structure for how we help businesses navigate city processes.

So those are the kind of key overview on how we approached um the reduction strategy.

And so going forward, we really um consolidated all of our work around the principle of creating a healthy economy that works for everyone, with prosperity being kind of the key indicator of what we're hoping to achieve.

And it, you know, really is built on the two pillars of workforce development, which is all about how do we train people, upskill them, certify them, and connect them to jobs.

And then on the other side of it, it's really around business development.

How do we create jobs, grow jobs, attract jobs, and retain jobs in Denver so that we can help individuals be able to get to a livable wage and to achieve better outcomes across the board?

And so we've really structured it around that our previous org chart.

Again, five divisions across the board with workforce development, business development, nest and executive office, as well as uh division small business opportunity.

We've now shifted some of the services around NEST and DISBO under the business development function, which is really going to create more streamlined efficiency in terms of how we work with businesses and individuals.

So that current org chart now has this consolidated down to three divisions.

It also has reduced our kind of top heavy structure and allowed us to have more alignment across the agency.

And a little more color on the business development front.

So as you can see now, we're really focused on three key nodes of business assistance, business advancement, and business attraction.

These are all kind of things that we've done in the past, a business advancement unit would be far more focused on how we're really helping businesses navigate the city.

And then under business assistance, now we can do certification, but we do that in alignment with all these other resources that we have available for businesses so that we can serve our customers better, have things more directly available to folks and align our resources and services.

Thank you, Adiv.

I think what we'll do is um jump into questions.

What we will do is I think just have you raise any questions that you want these folks to be ready for and us to be ready for both in individual briefings this week and next week or in budget hearings, so that way we catch any thoughts, questions you have now, uh, to make sure we get them all answered.

So is everyone that wants to jump in?

That's the Torres.

Thank you.

Um, just starting with um economic development, thank you, Adeep.

Um, it's noticing the movement of um neighborhood development under business.

Um, and I'm assuming that's the neighborhood equity and stabilization team work, and just and for future kind of clarification and understanding as well, um, the focus of that team and how or if it will be changing at all in the future.

I know um eight out of the 10 neighborhoods in my district have been classified as NES neighborhoods now and in the past.

Um, it's incredibly important um for me to have had the data that that team has provided, to have had the support that that team has provided on the ground to help elevate some really nuanced things that needed either investment or attention.

Um, it's been really important to how um Morrison Road and Westwood and South Federal have turned around since the pandemic.

So just want to better understand kind of the future of that work and that it's not reducing because we're about to see 100 million dollars of investment in Westwood.

Um, and that can have really powerful impacts on a community that um uh could be vulnerable to displacement and gentrification.

So um uh just kind of that line of questioning.

Happy to go into depth during our during our budget briefing.

Uh but in terms of our master's not answer all the content questions, we'll have too many to get through all of them, but if you just want to take that, I think because I know you've got a lot of thinking about this, and so yes, absolutely.

Both in-depth one-on-one or also come in the budget briefing with that work.

Our services are not changing within the NES, it's about bringing more resources to the work, and they are also have been working more across city agencies to bring a consolidation on how we work with neighborhoods.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Others, Councilman.

Thank you so much.

Um, I definitely have the same concerns.

I'm very concerned seeing the names change.

What does that mean?

You're taking out very important words like stability in neighborhoods that are underserved and equity when it comes to how these neighborhoods are treated because this isn't for every single neighborhood.

These are for the underserved neighborhoods, and I also am concerned about the small businesses, the certification process, making sure that they're connected to the contracts that they need.

I know recently I had a project in my district go out for bid and they receive zero bids, so that's very concerning to me on how we're talking to our local small businesses and how they get access to the opportunity.

So I'll just echo those concerns and add the small business.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Definitely no change of any of our values.

I'm already stepping back from them.

Any other questions?

Councilwoman Campbell, I'm President Project.

Thank you.

At the same time, the investment, you know, in the southern part of our city.

I also connect with Denver South and the corridor that they are working in and doing a lot of business development.

We are that northern portion of it, and just again wanted to further engage with Dito because I think there's a lot of opportunity in Southeast Denver that is going untapped.

Thank you.

Others, Councilman Watson.

And just quickly for DDPHE, just something to be aware of for budget dialogue on investigations and kind of where the uh capacity impacts have been.

Councilmember Lewis and I co-sponsored a bill on habitability and ensuring that we which will require increase investigations.

Would love to see if if you're able to dig into that and any impacts to that during budget discussions.

Councilman Sware.

Thanks.

This is what this one's for Jolan.

Not really a question.

I just want to say Councilmember Heinz and I during budget season last year had a very in-depth conversation and a budget amendment, actually, that would consider looking at our dog parks and allowing off-leash dogs for certain hours of the day.

There are other cities across the state of Colorado that do that.

I think that, you know, given the on-call workforce that you're dealing with, we should really go back and consider this because it's not a great use of our time for our park rangers to be, you know, jumping out of the bushes, giving the dog the people with their dogs off leash tickets.

Like it's it if we could come up with a compromise there that would streamline um and free up their ability to do um other things that need to be done and um also stop torturing the people with dogs who really just want to let their dogs run off leash for a tiny little while in a safe location.

So I think we should go back and consider that again.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you all so much, the three of you for being here, and we're looking forward to hearing more from you in the weeks ahead.

Uh I will now entertain a motion to move us into executive session pursuant to the RMC 234A, sections 346 and 7.

So for the purpose of receiving legal advice, discussed and settled, same discussion.

Actually, still use real state by the city.

So move.

I need those two.

All in favor.

Hi.

Okay.

Any opposed.

Great.

It will now enter into executive session.

We need to change the make more sense.