Erie Town Council Special Meeting - August 19, 2025: Grants to Communities Updates and Comprehensive Survey Results
Erie Town Council Special Meeting - August 19, 2025
The Town Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers. The meeting included a moment of silence for a recently deceased Erie High School student, public comment on non-agenda items, and two main general business items: updates to the Grants to Communities program application criteria and a presentation of results from the 2025 Comprehensive Community Survey. The meeting adjourned at 9:48 PM.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Sam Fogelman, an Erie resident, spoke in opposition to the town's Flock camera system. He alleged that federal authorities are accessing these systems to track immigrants and dissenters, describing the actions as "kidnapping" and calling on the Council to cancel contracts, remove cameras, and urge neighboring mayors to do the same. He urged the Council to act with urgency and resist becoming bystanders.
Discussion Items
Grants to Communities – Updated Application and Review Criteria (Item 25-456)
- Meredyth Muth presented proposed changes based on direction from the July 15 study session: maximum grant amounts of $12,000 for service grants and $5,000 for event grants (applicants can apply for up to two events under the $5,000 cap), and revised review criteria aligned with the Home Rule Charter preamble.
- Councilmember Baer expressed concern that reducing the event grant cap to $5,000 could hamstring important cultural events, citing Erie Fest and Erie Pride which historically requested $10,000 and were funded at $5,250 in the current year. She suggested keeping the cap at $10,000 or at least $7,500.
- Councilmember Hoback agreed, noting that events bring community and business to Old Town.
- Councilmember O'Connor raised a point about the reporting deadline (October 31) conflicting with late-year events (e.g., Thanksgiving); he proposed a reporting deadline of 60 days after the event instead.
- Councilmember Baer made a motion to accept the changes as directed at the last study session, with the modification that reporting be due 60 days after the conclusion of the event(s). Councilmember Hoback seconded. After discussion, Councilmember Baer proposed an amendment to restore event grant caps to $10,000 or $7,500. After debate, a roll call vote was held on the original motion (without the amendment).
- Vote: 4 in favor (Mortalaro, Bell, Moore, O'Connor), 3 opposed (Bear, Pesceromelli, Hoback). The motion passed, authorizing the updated application and criteria with the 60-day post-event reporting change, but keeping the $5,000 event grant cap.
Presentation of Results from Comprehensive Survey (Item 25-468)
- Gabi Rae, Director of Communications & Community Engagement, and Courtney Sievers, Director of Survey Research at Magellan Strategies, presented findings from the 2025 Community Survey.
- Methodology: 3,854 residents interviewed from July 14 to August 1, 2025; postcards sent to 12,000+ households and text messages to 19,000+ cell phones; margin of error ±1.47% at 95% confidence; results weighted to voter registration demographics.
- Key Findings:
- Top concerns: traffic, growth, and infrastructure (mentioned most often), followed by rapid growth/overdevelopment, water costs, affordable housing, and need for commercial/retail.
- Town direction: 39% say right direction, 27% wrong track, 34% unsure. Those unsure tend to be newer residents (41% lived in Erie <5 years).
- Town services approval: 66% approve of the job the town is doing.
- Fiscal responsibility: 45% agree the town spends taxpayer money wisely; 29% disagree.
- Police Department Expansion: Residents were given context (cost ~$38.6M, department at capacity). Preferred funding: 40% sales tax, 33% certificate of participation (COP), 15% property tax, 12% unsure. Strong support for sales tax across parties, but COP preferred among Republicans.
- Housing Density: 44% agree more housing diversity is needed, 51% disagree. Intensity shows 33% strongly disagree vs. 21% strongly agree.
- Affordable Housing: 54% support the town's affordable housing program (after education); 73% agree it helps families stay stable. Funding preferences: 64% favor federal/state grants, 36% support development fees, 20% general fund, 19% tax increase, 28% say town should not fund at all.
- Traffic & Safety: 53% say traffic added >10 minutes to their commute. Key problem intersections/roads: Arapahoe Road, Highway 7, County Line Road, Erie Parkway, Sheridan Parkway/287 corridor. Safety on roads perceived decreased by ~40% for all modes.
- Parks & Recreation: Top priority: good parks in neighborhoods (32% extremely important), community campus (19%), second rec center (16%). Funding preferences vary; community campus had highest willingness for a tax increase (24%).
- Sustainability: 51% would support a modest tax increase to fund the sustainability program; programs with highest support include expanding rebates (water-wise, energy efficiency) and maintaining/expanding the Erie Recycling Center.
- Following the presentation, Council members discussed implications for future ballot measures, particularly for police facility funding, sustainability, and a potential community campus. Staff noted that survey results will inform upcoming study sessions and the September 6 retreat.
Key Outcomes
- Vote on Grants to Communities: The motion to approve the updated application and criteria (with $12,000 service grant cap, $5,000 event grant cap, and reporting due 60 days after event completion) passed 4-3. The event grant cap remained at $5,000.
- Survey Results: No formal vote was taken. The Council will use the data as they consider future ballot measures and priorities, including police department expansion funding, sustainability programs, and parks/recreation investments. Further analysis (e.g., specific neighborhood breakouts, clarification of intersection data on slide 38) was requested from staff.
- Next Steps: A study session on the police facility is scheduled for September 2, 2025; a council retreat on September 6 will address budget impacts, potential ballot measures, and prioritization of capital projects. A ballot measure survey may be commissioned to test specific funding options.
Meeting Transcript
To order the town council special meeting on August nineteenth, twenty twenty-five. You'll please rise and join me in the pledge of the weekend. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States under America. Councilmember Pessaromelli. Councilmember Hoback. Councilmember Mortalaro? Here. Councilmember Bear. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Bell. Here. Mayor Moore. Here. Councilmember O'Connor. Here. You have a quorum there. All right. Thank you. Um before we go to approve the agenda, I want to just pause for a moment. On a Saturday night, we lost um one of the Uri's um youth, the sixteen-year-old um Erie High School uh student. A tragic auto accident. And um, I'd just like to take a moment of silence to reflect on that and your families and the importance of those those things around us that are really important. All in favor say aye. We have one person signed up for public comment. Sam two minutes at the podium here. Hi, Sam Fogelman. I'm the URI resident. I'm here tonight to speak out because I think it's important to do so in the matter of the outcome. I I think there's an obvious crisis that's happening all around us, and I think it's really scary to watch. There are bands of mass men and unmarked cars who are snatching people up off the street every day in communities nearby and across this country. The victims are dragged away to an unknown location and they're separated from their families, sometimes even their young children. And then some are sent to countries in which they've never lived. The kidnappers are a secret police force empowered both by the current authoritarian regime and the willingness of good people to do nothing, as the saying goes. If we choose to do nothing about this at this pivotal moment in history, then we fit the people that Dr. King referred to in his letter from Birmingham jail. People who are mod more devoted to order than to justice, who prefer a negative piece, which is the absence of tension to a positive piece, which is the presence of justice. Because I think you have that power. It has now been thoroughly documented by multiple news outlets around the country that flock camera systems, the same ones that monitor Erie and a number of surrounding towns are being accessed by federal authorities to track immigrants and dissenters for the purpose of kidnapping them. Our town's records are inherently part of those searches. If we're a community built on morals and ethics, and I hope that we are, then we cannot allow ourselves to take part in the work of this regime that entrenches itself further into our lives every day. Taking those steps ensures that this regime loses a foothold of control over our lives here in Erie and that they can hurt fewer people. I think you should do this simply because by keeping that surveillance system operational here, you comply with overlords who are actively harming and traumatizing human beings on a daily basis. And if you comply with fascists on even a small scale, they know that they can continue to brutalize detractors and dissenters while you stand by and do nothing. And when that happens, you'll be wondering why it's suddenly you or somebody you love being stuffed into an unmarked car, and then it's going to be too late. So I'm asking you to be really brave right now. I'm asking you to act with urgency, and I'm asking you to resist becoming a bystander to what's taking place when you have the power to act. I hope you'll cancel those contracts. I hope you'll remove those cameras, and I hope you'll urge your neighboring mayors and councils to do the same because it's the right thing to do at the right time. Thank you. Thanks for coming out tonight.
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