Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Grand Junction City Council held a workshop on Monday, June 29, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. in the Fire Department Training Room and via GoToWebinar. The meeting covered updates to the City's Animal Code (Title 6), an overview of the Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District funding, council communication on various topics, and appointments to the One Riverfront Commission. No formal votes were taken, but consensus was reached on several items.
Title 6, Animal Code Police Chief Matt Smith presented a comprehensive rewrite of the City's Animal Code, consolidating three sections and modernizing language following the City's assumption of animal control from Mesa County. The primary goal was restructuring animal licensing and enforcement procedures.
Overview of Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District Funding Fire Chief Pete Skeris presented the financial impact of the City's long-standing agreement to provide fire services within the Rural Fire Protection District.
Councilmembers discussed several topics:
City Manager Mike Bennett outlined upcoming workshops:
Appointments to the One Riverfront Commission Council reviewed recommendations from the interview committee. The applicant pool was described as exceptionally strong. Recommended full-term appointments: Thomas Freeman, Erin McDermott, Ian Thomas, and Julius Tilkins. Partial-term appointments: Sarah (last name not provided) and Glory Schroeder. Council noted that Ian Thomas also serves on the Planning Commission and asked the City Clerk to research whether service on multiple boards is permitted before finalizing appointments at the regular meeting.
It's 5 30 p.m. on Monday, June 29th, and uh we are preparing to start our workshop. We do have due to the higher processional, we have a couple late attendees who will be starting it just a minute. We'll be getting our workshop, and um, we will be starting with discussion topics. The first is Title Six Animal Code. Thank you, Mayor. We do have our uh chief of police and and uh and his team here to uh give an overview about yes, please. Um about uh code changes that we have proposed related to the animal as you are aware when Macy County decided they would no longer conduct animal services, our department stood up this division, and the department has done an outstanding job and actually just delivers a high level of service to the community with lots of great feedback from the community, and as part of that, we have some changes that we need to make, and we're gonna I'm I'm not gonna give that whole presentation in my intro, so I'll let Chief Smith uh give an overview of that. Uh, one thing uh as council would ask uh some questions related to parts of this code and changes from the previous um to what we are proposing, so we'll cover those, and also um, keep in mind that we are coming at this from an operational standpoint, what we are able to do operationally when we enforce and work on this code. So, thanks, G. Did you want to add anything in charge? Um, yeah, so just a quick background. And in like the city manager said, this is kind of in response to us taking animal control responsibility. Um, in addition to uh a couple of uh issues involving licensure. Um, the staff have looked at the code, and the old version, I guess it would be the current version of the code right now, uh, was written in an era designed for essentially the the contractual nature we had with the county prior to us taking over that enforcement. So given the change, the necessary change of licensure that uh this contemplates, it was also the opportunity to review the rest of the code and determine what uh issues there were that didn't quite match up with what the way the new operational scheme works right now. Um and so uh the staff had decided to kind of revisit the entire code, and it gave us the opportunity to modernize it. And so that's kind of the theory behind uh the complete rewrite of title six, to consolidate three different titles into one and to modernize the code and bring it up to our actual operational uh practices. Um, Chief. Well, I think they both said what I was going to say. Not being at the council meeting where it was pulled, I'm really not sure what questions you guys have. So I thought maybe we could just dive straight into those questions. I do have uh one of our animal control officers with us tonight, but we're gonna be chiefs, and then our sort of manager that oversee the program. So if I can't answer something that's more of a detailed level, other than a higher level, um, I may have to refer to them for some specificity because it is a rather complicated code and there's a lot to it. And we take things that were in the zoning code and move them into title six and things that were in three different sections and try to consolidate them. There's a lot there. So I can understand the confusion and maybe some questions. And so I thought we would just kick it off with what are the questions and kind of dialogue. Did you want to start? Yeah, I was the one who asked to pull it. There was no discussion. I was asked to pull it in the reserve discussion for again. The only part of it that I was concerned about was the arbitrary length, reptilian length, and how we're measuring that. So I wanted to discuss whether there's a different way we can do that, whether we can measure, you know, from shoulder to the face of the tail, or maybe remove the restriction and just have it do with safety. I understand that there might be a capacity for caring for an animal, a reptile, but I'd like to discuss where that came from. Um and insist that we that we don't use an arbitrary length. And if it's not arbitrary, tell me, but I'd like us to not use an arbitrary length and instead take this from a public safety and public health standpoint. Yeah, so the length really is derived from what capacity we have locally if we had to take one of those animals. So the only um place that we have to take an animal or a reptile is GNM aquatics, and J and M cannot take anything over two feet. So if we had a reptile over two feet, um we have no place to take it, and our concern our concern really is more for the animal in that if you know who knows what circumstance might happen.