Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Grand Junction City Council held a workshop on May 4, 2026, at 5:30 PM in the Fire Department Training Room. The workshop covered three main discussion topics: amendments to the camping on public property ordinance, the 2026 Community Satisfaction Survey, and a request from the Urban Trails Committee (UTC) for representation on the Housing Affordability Code Task Force (HACTF). Councilmembers in attendance included Mayor Cody Kennedy, Robert Ballard (virtual), Scott Beilfuss, Laurel Lutz, Jason Nguyen, and Ben Van Dyke. Councilmember Anna Stout was absent.
Interim City Attorney Jeremiah Boies and Police Chief Matt Smith presented an overview. The current ordinance (No. 4833, 2019) prohibits camping on public property but contains an exception preventing enforcement when no overnight shelter is available, based on the Martin v. Boise ruling. The 2024 City of Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court decision overturned that legal precedent. City staff recommended removing the shelter-availability exception to restore enforcement tools used prior. Chief Smith presented data showing the city spent $460,000 from 2022 to 2025 to remove 119 tons of debris from river encampments, noting a history of outreach and voluntary compliance.
Councilmember Lutz opposed the change without first providing alternatives for the unhoused, such as sanitation services or housing solutions, stating she could not support the amendment without those answers. Councilmember Nguyen supported the enforcement change but requested a future workshop dedicated to interim housing solutions. Councilmembers Ballard, Beilfuss, and Van Dyke supported the amendment, emphasizing public safety, fire mitigation, and restoring police tools. Mayor Kennedy supported the change, clarifying it restores the previous legal framework rather than directing immediate sweeps. Consensus was reached to move forward with an ordinance amendment removing the shelter availability restriction.
Communications and Engagement Manager Kelsey Coleman presented the plan for the biennial survey. The survey is a randomized, statistically valid mailing to over 5,400 residents across eight neighborhoods, with results weighted by age and ethnicity. The results inform the city's budget and strategic plan. Councilmember Lutz suggested adding a question about the Orchard Mesa Pool. Councilmember Ballard raised concerns about online survey bias. Staff confirmed the main survey is distinct from an open online survey to ensure validity. Council supported accelerating the timeline if possible to inform upcoming policy discussions.
Mayor Kennedy detailed a letter he wrote regarding the UTC's request for representation on the HACTF. He alleged the UTC had operated outside its authorized scope (Resolution 48-14), engaged in political advocacy against council policy, and submitted a letter containing misleading statistics, specifically using a 20% non-car commuting figure to argue against bike parking changes when actual bicycle commuting is approximately 2%. Kennedy cited recorded UTC meetings where members allegedly planned to "wait this council out," made derogatory comments about HACTF members, and expressed intent to reinstate a former staff position eliminated by council.
Councilmember Nguyen, as the UTC liaison, felt the request for representation was reasonable, arguing the UTC has valuable technical expertise for specific code discussions and that much of the concern stemmed from individual comments made in public sessions. Councilmembers Ballard, Beilfuss, and Van Dyke aligned with the Mayor's concerns, expressing frustration over the adversarial relationship and conduct. Councilmember Lutz proposed a prospective "letter of expectation" clarifying the UTC's advisory role rather than immediately pursuing a resolution rewrite, and suggested standardizing orientations across all city boards and commissions. Interim City Attorney Boies outlined options, including a new resolution or a letter of expectation.
Councilmember Van Dyke proposed changing how the Real Estate Committee functions, suggesting that major real estate decisions be handled by the full council in executive session rather than a two-person committee. Staff and council were receptive to this discussion. Mayor Kennedy invited top Civic Bee finishers to attend a future meeting. Council directed staff to pull a coatings procurement item to allow time to verify contractor performance claims and local economic impacts. A request from the Colorado Water Congress for a federal funding support letter was noted but no action taken due to timing. Staff reviewed logistics for the upcoming mayoral and mayor pro tem transition.
Can you turn just in the executive session? She just couldn't feel that's okay. That's right. Is there a question we're doing? That's right. Maybe you can take it. Yeah, the one exactly that one. I'm a little bit of legal guidance is always a good thing. Okay, it is uh 5 30 on Monday, May the 4th, 2026. And I will call our city of City Council's council for shop session to work. And as we start out with here tonight, we have uh three discussion topics, and we will be starting out with camping on property for discussion. And Mike, if you want to start us up here. Yes, thank you, mayor, members of council. Uh tonight's discussion on the camping on public property for uh is a result of some changes to our ordinance over the years and then some recent uh communication that the council received related to uh camping along the river and how to address that. So we wanted to begin this discussion in two parts. Uh first our interim city attorney uh Jeremiah Boyce was going to discuss uh language, how it was added into the ordinance, what that history was, uh, we have a brief update, and then following uh Jeremiah will I will invite our chief of police to come up here next to me and and he's gonna give an overview of how the city has dealt with this over the years since I'll let him go through when it started, I think it was in 2011, and then what's changed this year due to the language that's in the ordinance and uh and then open that up for discussion with council. So we'll have the chairman going to talk about something. Okay, thank you. Um so just to get a little background on how we got to where we are now. Um the current version of the ordinance that we have on the books was passed in 2019, and that uh is essentially a prohibition of camping on public property. Um the important uh caveat on the reason for this discussion is there's a exception to our ability to enforce the the camping ordinance contained within there, and that was based on uh ninth circuit case law that uh when you go back to 2019 in the case of Martin V City of Boise. Um essentially in that case there was a holding that um they found it was a violation of constitutional right to uh enforce camping when there was no overnight shelter available. Um and so at the time our ordinance says it was passed uh was written to reflect the case law as it was at that time. Uh subsequent to that in 2024, the United States Court took up uh a case with very similar facts uh dealing with this very specific holding from the ninth circuit, um, a case out of uh Grants Pass or again that we just simply called Grants Pass case. Um and in that case, they overturned the uh ninth Circuit previous holding and found that there was no constitutional violation for enforcing a camping ban on public property when there was no overnight shelter available. Um subsequent to that, uh, as council knows our uh predominant uh overnight shelter that we have in town has permanently closed. Um, and thus uh we're essentially in a position where our camping ordinance becomes effectively unenforceable because most of the time there is no uh overnight shelter available just due to uh circumstances. Um, and so that's how we got here, and I guess I turn it back over to uh the city manager for the rest of it. Thank