The Golden City Council held a regular business meeting on August 11, 2026, at 6:30 PM. The meeting began with an executive session (7:00–7:39 PM) for personnel review and legal advice. Following the session, the council unanimously voted to terminate at-will employee City Manager Scott Vargo and authorized the City Attorney to negotiate a separation agreement. The council also unanimously appointed Acting City Manager Carly Lorenz as Interim City Manager, with the Appointee Subcommittee directed to finalize an agreement. Public comment and council responses followed, along with updates on a third-party investigation and consent agenda approvals.
All right, it is six thirty, and I am going to get um our meeting started. This is the regular business meeting for City Council for August eleventh, twenty twenty-six. Councillor Connect. Here, Councillor Cameron. Councillor. Mayor Putin. Here. Councilor Fellow. Here. Councilor Krisanski. Here. Mayor you have a forum. Thank you. Um, next is approval of the agenda, and having received no changes to the agenda, it has approved as has been presented. And we'll go into a motion as the next order of business. Um, all those in favor, please say I. All right. The time is now 7:39 p.m. And the executive session has been concluded. The participants in the executive session were Sandra Yanis, Sandra Connect, Don Cameron, Patty Evans, Lisa Vittree, Gerhard Fowl, and Emily Krasinski, and myself. If any person who participated in the executive session believes that any substantial discussion of any matter not included in the motion to go into the executive session occurred during the executive session, or that any improper action occurred during the executive session in violation of the open meetings law, I ask that you state your concerns now. Hearing none, we resume the regular business meeting. Um before we move further in our meeting. So keep that simple. Thank you. Yeah. Anyone like to go next? Councillor Connect. At some point I'll stop playing the new person card. I don't know when. I don't know. Things keep being new. Among the myriad of other things that are top of mind right now, I've been really deeply moved by the conversations that we've been able to have tonight was the first time that we were able to have this conversation in executive session. And I'm moved by the sense of shared responsibility that I feel across the dais um for us to do what is right within our powers that are granted by the charter for council. And that even though I think that whatever the future may hold it is likely to be difficult, but I do take heart in the fact that we will be able to hold hands and make those steps together. And when I say we, I don't mean just these folks on the dais. I mean as a community, I'm really appreciative of the public comment, the sense of accountability that's been communicated to us, the reminders and where those responsibilities to do what is right is coming. And I just really wanted to express that as difficult as this is. Counselor Kevin. Yeah, I want to I want to thank all the people who reached out to me privately and trusted me to hear their how they're feeling about what's going on. Um I have many residents and employees who normally don't interact with city counselors, and they put their trust in me to have conversations really meaningful. And uh trust issue is is paramount. Um so as we move forward in our discussion tonight and you know take action. I think it's important that the employees know we care about this issue deeply, and I pushed for our meeting last week. I pushed for this investigation. Um I attended the ready meeting yesterday. There's uh another one later this week. We are committed, and I'm committed personally to helping the city heal. I really want to thank the people that have uh put their trust in me to just move forward, and that's what I hope to do. Thanks.