Public safety, always my first priority.

A safe city uh has to be maintained.

Secondly, improved quality of life for the people around here, and then finally, uh better economic development in Southwest Denver.

What is your proudest moment so far in your time on council?

Uh I tell you what, it was when voters several years ago awarded the highest amount of bond investment ever in Southwest Denver, and that's the $30 million to renovate the Loreto Heights Theater and reopen it as a community accessible performing arts space.

Wonderful.

What lessons have you learned during your time on council?

Uh the most important thing is to listen to people, hear what they say, and authentically represent them.

It doesn't matter what I want for here.

What matters is what these 65,000 people around here tell me in the main that they want.

And what message would you like to leave us with today?

Get involved.

Find your neighborhood organization, join it, express your uh express yourself, your opinions.

Uh if you don't uh get involved with your RNO, if you don't have one, uh call me individually because I can't represent you honestly and authentically unless I know what you want.

Councilman Flynn, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

See you later.

Councilman Watson, how are you doing?

Hey, I'm doing fantastic.

You ready to do this?

I'm ready to roll.

So tell us where we are today.

We are in five points here in Denver, the Harlem of the West.

And why did you choose this location?

I chose this location because we're at the Omar Blair Research Library, African American research library.

And what is your favorite thing about your district?

The favorite thing about this district, District 9, is the diversity of the folks who live in this district in a diverse neighborhood.

What is your favorite thing about our city?

I think our city is a welcoming city, and I appreciate that.

We welcome all to come to Denver.

What's your favorite memory from living in Denver?

Uh, my favorite memory was purchasing my first home in Whittier, just a few blocks from here.

How long have you been a council member?

I've been a council member for 20 months.

It feels a little bit longer, but it's only been 20 months.

And why did you choose to run for council?

I choose to run for council because I wanted to fight for regular Americans, regular Denver rights to make sure that they were able to live in the places that they love.

What is the biggest challenge facing your district?

The biggest challenge is housing affordability.

What is the biggest opportunity in your district?

I think that's the biggest opportunity as well is housing affordability, ensuring that we can create a city where all folks can live in the places that they love.

What are your biggest priorities that inform your work as a council member?

Uh, my biggest priority is to make sure that we create legislation to increase affordable housing across the city and county of Denver.

What is your proudest moment so far in your time on council?

My proudest moment is being a co-sponsor of a bill that increased tenants' rights for the places that they choose to live to make sure that they can live in dignity.

What lessons have you learned during your time on council?

Uh, the lessons I've learned is that the time goes fast, working collaboratively with council members, listening to community members to co-create legislation that works for all.

And what message would you like to leave us with today?

Uh I'd like to say I love Denver.

This city is an amazing city, a welcoming city.

It is important for us as legislators, me as your legislator in District 9 to continue to fight for you and your families to ensure that this city remains vibrant for all.

Councilman Watson, thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

A rollover can happen to any driver any time.

And three out of five deaths that occur in a rollover from people not wearing a seatbelt.

Fortunately, my assistant Lauren here was wearing her seatbelt when her vehicle rolled over.

No one's above the laws of physics.

Buckle up and shift into safe.

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.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, happy Tuesday.

Welcome to Mayor Council.

Delighted to have you all with us.

We will do a round of introductions.

We do have some announcements this morning, and then we don't have a formal general session.

We do have two executive session items, so we'll have a shorter public session this morning.

But we'll start with introductions.

Distinguished gentleman to a right can take us off.

Coming into Sawyer District 5.

Oh, sorry.

I didn't know you weren't done yet.

No, no.

Come on.

It's already passed through it.

It's perfect time.

Kevin Flynn, South West Denver's District Two.

Daryl Watson, fine, district nine.

Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District Four.

Amanda San Ball, Northwest Denver District One.

Welcome, good morning.

Are there any announcements that they would have to share?

No, now you gotta go.

Now you gotta say what you were going to do.

This is a mall multitasking road.

I was.

I was like, all right, we're doing this.

Any announcements?

Council Watson.

It's for Colbert's marathon time.

All the weekend, Saturday, starting at Saturday the fifteenth, the 5K crew.

I'll be running a half marathon this Sunday, so please say prayers for my old bulls, but Colfax Weekend is the best weekend of the year.

So come on out, enjoy some sun and fun at some exercise with your city council member Daryl Watson and the Colfax Marathon team and twenty-something thousand more of our friends.

Does anyone else have an announcement set to theme music?

They were like Councilman Cashman.

No theme music.

I just want to let my colleagues know I'll be bringing forth an ordinance to limit Councilman Watson's caffeine intake.

It's an issue of public safety, I think.

Public health.

Thank you so much.

Any other announcements with or without theme music.

Well, okay.

Alright, that was just the mic drop moment.

Thank you so much.

Excellent.

All right, well, it was a short uh short public session, but again, thank you all so much for being here.

We do have a number of items in executive session for today's calendar that are important for this body to talk about.

So I will now entertain a motion to move us into an executive session pursuant to DRMC 234A, section 36 and 7 for the purpose of discussing the settlement of pending litigation against the city.

And changes in state law and legal advice related there too.

So in favor, hi.

How do you post?

With that, we will enter executive session.

Thank you so much.

A fantastic week.

We will see you at the Colfax Marathon.

And another one that works for them better.

And it's it's a great event.

It's a great experience.

And we on the private lands, we always include the private landowners, have them come out and help us do the releases.

We've also had the opportunity to bring um children out, school groups, you know, usually in coordination with the landowner with some of the public land releases that we've done, we've had the public come out to the releases, and it's it's a it's a really fun day to put these animals out.

Um, one of the things you hear a lot of when we're doing it is the ferrets chattering.

They have a very high-pitched chitter sound that when they're um feeling a little threatened, they'll they'll let that sound out, and you hear a lot of that when the releases are happening.

Um, and it's just it's a great opportunity to get some pictures.

These are very secretive little animals, and it's hard for people to actually go out and see them.

Um there are a number of live exhibit sites here in the state where where the public can go see them.

Um, and I always recommend people go to those sites.

Uh, the Museum of Discovery in Fort Collins, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in the Denver area, and I believe the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo still has ferrets on exhibit.

So those are great sites to see them, and about the only time you're gonna spot them out in the wild is when we're actually doing a release and we're letting them out of their cages.

It's very unusual.

It's rated the best ferret display in North America because it looks like someone cut a chunk out of the prairie, a chunk out of the ferrets habitat, and set it right down here in the middle of the museum.

Colorado is one of the states within the historic range of the Blackfooted ferret, and so we are participating in federal recovery for the species and then also undertaking work under our state um ferret management plan.

This has been a really rewarding project to work on.

Difficult but rewarding.

Um there's there's so many moving pieces in a reintroduction like this, and to be able to get all those pieces together, be able to successfully work with the various partners that we have within the program, and the private landowners, the egg community, everybody engaged with this, and be able to put these really remarkable animals back into the habitats that they belong in, is so important.

Um I always say that when we did our first release back in 2013, um, the last time we had seen ferrets on the eastern plains of Colorado was a generation before me.

And I mean, that's amazing.

They had been gone from that ecosystem for that long.

And so to be able to put those animals back into the ecosystem where they belong, it gave me goosebumps that time that we did that first release.

And I thought, well, that's kind of cool.

But now I've been out on so many of these releases, I still get goosebumps every time we go out and do it.

Sometimes it's because it's cold and windy, other times it's because it's just it's amazing.

And to be out there with with kids that really have have probably not a great idea of how amazing it is that they're part of this process, but that's something that they're gonna remember forever to have been out on a release.

We released Blackbird ferrets, the most endangered mammal.