How can you say an answer to anything in Tim?

My name's Tommy Wood.

I work with Biz West, the business journal of the Boulder Valley in Northern Colorado, and I'm also on the Board of Directors of the Lafayette Chamber.

Your concerns can be addressed, and you all can make informed decisions about who you want to govern our city.

Uh business owners have been submitting questions for this forum for about a week.

Uh all the questions that the candidates are answering have been submitted by business owners from Lafayette.

Um any questions that were submitted after 1159 p.m.

yesterday will be given to the candidates to answer on their own time.

Um so here's how it's gonna work.

To start, uh, we're gonna give each candidate about 10 seconds to introduce themselves and state their name and whether they've served in local government before and for how long.

Um our question askers, Frank Phillips and Rosa Bell Rice will answer the will ask the questions.

Uh every candidate has to answer every question.

Uh we can repeat a question, but we will not explain them.

Um you each have 30 seconds to, or excuse me, you each have 60 seconds to answer each question.

Our timekeeper Devin Price will raise a yellow card when you have 30 seconds left, and a red card when your time is up.

At the end, we'll have a lightning round.

Well, you'll each have 10 seconds to answer a few yes or no questions.

Um that's how it's gonna work.

So let's get to it.

So, Saul, why don't we start with you and we'll go down the line?

Uh start with your name and how long you've been in government.

Amazing.

Uh well, first off, thank you all for being here, and thank you for having me.

My name is Saul Dafega, and I'm a current member of City Council, so I know this seat pretty well.

Uh and I'm running for re-election for this year, so that's I I've been in city government through through many different ways.

Uh I sent a couple boards of commissions as well as um through my day job.

But yes, I'm a current member of city council, and I'm running for re-election.

Okay.

My name is uh Eric Ryan.

I've never been in well, I did run for office in 2023, uh city council, but did not succeed, so I'm trying again.

I've never really held a political office, but uh I've done a lot of leadership with my companies, and I'm an independent business owner for Lafayette.

My name is Anne Marie Jensen.

I've lived in Lafayette for 11 years.

Um, in terms of service, I've served on the planning commission, the East Lafayette Advisory Committee, the Livable Lafayette Task Force right now, the land use working group and the WOW Children's Museum Ford.

And I have about 35 or 40 years of background as an independent consultant in public policy.

Hi, I'm Mike Watson, um, running for city council.

Obviously, that's why I'm up here.

Um I don't have any any sort of experience with uh with public office yet.

Um I'm looking to get started.

Uh I like I think most Americans look up at the political system above me, and I don't think that it really represents a whole lot of us.

And I don't I can't think of a better place to get started than here in hometown of Lafayette.

Thank you.

Hi, uh I'm Luke Errington.

Uh I've been in Lafayette residence since 2013.

Never held political office, but I've been uh volunteering on the Open Space Advisory Board for the last eight years where I'm vice chair currently.

I'm on the Urban Renewal Authority for the last seven years and have a background in commercial real estate.

Good evening, I'm Kyle Bolier.

I have no local government experience other than working for the Parkinson Recreation Department when I was 12 to 18 years old and the city library in my hometown, North Carolina when I was eight, nine, and ten.

I I've worked for about 20 years in the federal government, in and around uh FBI State Department uh and USAID.

So looking to make a splash uh where I live in lovely Lafayette.

My name is Adam Giunova.

I also don't have any experience um uh local government, although I've been volunteering with the race reduction advisory committee and the sustainability committee for the past 10 years.

I was also a member of a bunch of uh the city plan working groups currently on the uh land use code working group.

Uh I'm an attorney for my day job.

Um yeah, I've been in Lafayette a long time and want to see it succeed and grow.

Good evening.

My name is Crystal Gallegos.

I'm a Lafayette resident of 10 years.

I'm one of the current city council members seeking re-election.

I first started in 2023, and two years have gone by way too quickly.

Good evening.

My name is Josh Beryl.

Uh I was a high school teacher in and around Denver for 15 years.

I've never held public office, but I was active uh with our teachers union and in the political wing thereof, and I hope to be a council member soon.

Hi, Rob Glenn.

Uh thank you all for hosting this Lafayette Chamber.

Uh great to be able to speak in front of everybody.

Uh, first time running for a new political office.

Um moved to Lafayette, Wolftown Lafayette in February of 2021.

Uh just been super proud to be a part of this community.

It's been so welcoming.

Uh and it just kind of circles back to my roots from being from New Orleans and just seeing culture diversity and and historic preservation around here.

That's important to me.

Okay, so uh first um I will let our timekeeper again explain how the timing is going to work.

You each have one minute for these questions when 30 seconds has passed, I'm gonna hold up the yellow card.

And I hold up the right card, that's it.

We're gonna move on to the next candidates.

I'm going to be very certified.

Excellent.

Okay, so again, as Tommy mentioned, um, I can repeat the question, I can't explain it.

And again, these are from the chamber members.

I did not make up any of these questions.

So no trick questions in here.

All right, and then kind of the order we'll go through is initially.

I'll start here, work our way down, and then as we get with each question, we'll move one person down to be the first person.

So everybody gets a chance of being first and being last.

All right, so um question number one.

What role does the city council play in creating a successful environment for small businesses to thrive?

Fantastic question first and foremost.

Whoever submitted it, congratulations.

That's a great question to start with.

Uh it everything.

So the environment that uh small businesses and local businesses come into is what is set by the city council.

So this this can mean a lot of different things.

For me, it means just making an environment in which not businesses don't just have the ability to survive, but to thrive.

I I specifically love small businesses, and I love Lafayette businesses, what we've been able to do.

Um, but but I think it can it can expand, it can get better.

Uh for me, it's in terms of streamlining permitting, uh, the permitting process and regulations, uh, equitable access uh to resources for all businesses, and this can mean access to capital, which is something that a lot of small businesses require.

Uh, and investing in local infrastructure, allowing for businesses to thrive means that they have to be accessible to the public and they have to be able to tie into our resources and tie into our infrastructure, and that means that the city has to do that.

So I know my time is almost up.

It means everything.

The city council and local government really have everything to do in building a welcoming environment.

Thank you.

Well, uh, I agree with Saul that the city council is responsible really for everything that small businesses are involved in.

And I think it's really important that the city council gives a lot of support, offers grant programs, tax incentives, because right now the uh you know, the uh economic environment isn't really uh very settled, and it's very unpredictable.

So I think it's really important for the city council to get in front of it to help the small business to make sure that it has the proper tools to succeed because it's a very difficult business environment right now.

So I think the question actually has uh an important piece, which is it's the job of council to create the environment for small businesses to succeed, and that includes infrastructure, support financially, time is money to a local business.

So anytime things are delayed, like permitting or tying into water or sewer, that costs money.

So we need to do that efficiently.

But I think it's important that we understand it is not the job of local government to create winners and losers in the economy, not to decide which businesses should be successful as opposed to other businesses, but to create the environment and create incentives to help business equally so that no business is getting uh any sort of unfair treatment.

So I think those are a really important values that I I think the council should support.

Thank you.

Um I think that uh the main role of the city council is primarily supportive for local businesses for starting a new business.

We're kind of we would be not we, but but if I'm elected, um, we would be more like a kinder version of Shark Tank.

Uh you come in, like tell us the idea of like city council can can be supportive.

Um I I don't think that it's necessarily important to I think that this is the community does have a say in what sort of businesses go in, and uh I guess saying that does imply that I'm in favor of picking some winners and losers.

Um but we want to make sure that our community is is built up in a way that's representative of our values and uh the people that we have living in Lafayette and sort of the the the nature and and I mean just all the stuff that makes Lafayette worth holding on to, worth living in.

Um, and we want to grow our business, but we don't want to lose that spirit.

Thank you.

Uh I do think it is an environment thing and a framework for city council to create to help businesses.

I mean, they they do have to survive on their own and thrive in the community.

I mean, that is support from people coming to their businesses, but a lot of the hoops they have to jump through is a permitting and codes.

It's it's it's signage requirements.

Um, you know, you can lead them to resources like you know, our economic development director.

I mean, try to provide these little bits of information and you know, connect them with other businesses that can help support them and they can learn from.

Um, you know, there have been grants, there have been other financial support.

Um, those are tools, but you know, the environment that they get to live in and be a part of is connecting it to other parts of the community, which will help them thrive and others sort of thrive in their businesses.

So that the environment is key to it because that will attract other businesses and support the existing ones we have, which just helps you know helps raise everyone's vote uh at the same time.

So I love this question.

I'm gonna answer it slightly differently because I'll stipulate a lot of what has been shared so far.

Um, but I think a question of affordability.

Small businesses, owners and workers can't thrive if their staff can't afford to live in town.

They got to commute from several towns away.

So I think we have to uh bucket affordability, housing affordability with small business and local business success.

That's point one.

Point two, you know, Laura and then DDA have been very successful, and so something I've been thinking about is like how to supercharge DDA, particularly with the arrival of the Sundance Film Festival as a forcing mechanism.

So looking around uh Boulder County, we can look at the downtown Boulder Partnership, a 501c6 organization membership that's really focused not on revitalization, it accepts that downtown Boulder is already thriving.

So perhaps we could explore supercharging DDA with a downtown Lafayette partnership modeled and uniquely applicable to our circumstances, and then lastly, I'm concerned we're heading towards a recession.

So, how can City Council help buttress small and local businesses so that they're able to be uh resilient as the economic downturn possibly arrives in 2026?

Frank, can you repeat the question?

Absolutely.

What role does the city council play in creating a successful environment for small businesses to thrive?

I think city council should be setting policies that let small businesses grow, build, develop, um, and do that in a way that's accessible to businesses.

Right now, if you're a small starting a small business, it's it's hard to figure out what to do.

And so the city could, you know, partner with community partners like the chamber to create a roadmap.

I know the chamber has a roadmap, but uh there's improvements that could be made that really outline kind of these are the processes that most small businesses go through.

Uh, if you want to, you know, build a building or you know, do some development on a building.

Here's the the process that you go through uh for planning and permitting and really make that easy for businesses to look at, and that can apply to businesses through any stage of their development, whether they're you know just starting out or whether they're growing uh and getting getting bigger or they want to move or uh you know just become a bigger part of the community.

So we love our small businesses, they are the heart of our community, and we want to do anything we can, both as residents and as council members to make sure they feel safe and welcome and want to continue doing business here.

Something I'm a believer in is teamwork.

It's not something that we as a council can do alone.

I'm very grateful for our partnership with the chamber and with our department of economic development.

Our department of economic development recently introduced the vacant to vibrant program to help bring new businesses into our community.

And I also want to echo um streamlining the permitting process and making sure that businesses want to come here and be a part of our community.

I think city council plays an important role in creating the uh environment in which businesses operate, but also in the ways that we think about small business in our town.

Um, like some of my colleagues have mentioned, um, this is important to all of us.

It's part of what makes us feel at home in Lafayette.

Um, a few of us just walked down from a local business before uh sitting here this evening in front of you.

Um so certainly using the resources that city council has, um, including through the tax dollars that comes through to make sure that we are doing right by our small and local businesses and helping out where need be, um, permitting and licensing responsibly and intentionally so that we can create opportunities for businesses that are here to grow, and of course, to welcome new businesses as well.

There's uh to be two things to focus on.

The first thing is thank you to all the small businesses that are have already invested in Lafayette.

Um I would brought a brand to Colorado and know the struggles.

I mean, especially what everybody went through in COVID and staffing and hiring, keeping product in stock that if you had to have that.

Um so the first thing kind of is a thank you to the chamber.

I mean, y'all are the voice, the chamber's the voice to the city to the council.

I know Brian Wrong's been a great liaison in he's terming out, but if I was to get on council, I would love to be that liaison and somebody that listens and just supports where we can as a counselor, or if I was elected.

The other piece they've all kind of talked about new development.

There's great things coming along to encourage new businesses to come, but it's gonna be super important that that permitting and development process to the new land use code changes, that it's more streamlined and it's not taking two to three years to build or redevelop a property here in Lafayette.

Okay, question number two, and we'll start with you, Eric.

Okay.

Colorado Colorado legislature has given local communities the ability to increase the minimum wage within their communities.

Please share your thoughts on increasing the minimum wage within Lafayette.

Well, I think it's really important since we're uh all uh it's a community of independent business owners to really discuss and have like a town hall meeting or a workshop with them to really see their point of view uh and the struggles they're having or the struggles that they're not having and understand what a minimum wage increase would do to their business.

Now, if you look at an individual, if you're gonna raise it like the proposal uh in uh with uh Boulder County last year, they were gonna raise it to 30 uh what was it, 25 dollars an hour in uh in 2030.

That's a huge increase every year.

And if you look about having 10 employees at a dollar increase, that's an extra 20,000 dollars in expenses, which means like a hundred thousand dollars in extra revenue that a company needs to produce just to really uh make ends meet.

So uh in these economic times, I think we have to have the pulse of the independent business people and to really understand where they are.

Next candidates.

Well, I'm gonna say I've unabashedly been a champion for increasing the minimum wage in Lafayette, which I know some people might not want to hear, but I think we can do it gradually, and we can help businesses prepare for it.

I Lafayette is 17% more expensive than the rest of the state.

It is if you've ever talked to any low-wage people and looked at what it takes to try to live here on minimum wage, and everyone will say, Well, nobody tries to live on minimum wage.

Yes, some people do.

And even uh teenagers may be working to supplement their families' income.

They may be working to put away money for college because their parents don't have them.

But I think there are ways to do it gradually and slowly so that we don't negatively impact local business.

And I was a local small business owner most of my life.

I have a lot of empathy and and concern about small business, it's what people love about Lafayette.

So we've got to do it carefully.

I think this is really a question about the affordability of Lafayette.

Um, if you look at the the statistics on where everyone lives and works in this area, you got a vast majority of people who live in Lafayette work elsewhere, and a vast majority of the people who work in Lafayette live outside.

And so you have this huge outflow and inflow of traffic going in every single day.

Um, and I think we could do a better job.

Now, I don't think that necessarily raising the minimum wage is the way to handle that.

I would target our our housing affordability um focus on uh on making sure the people who who work in our town live in our town.

I think everybody here has sat down with uh with Doug, uh firefighter over there.

And one of the things, one of the most interesting things that he said to me was um that most of the firefighters can't even afford to live in Lafayette, and these are the people who are keeping us safe, who we need in the event of an emergency.

And I mean, I think that we could do more to make sure at the very least, say nothing about the broader like housing crisis as a whole.

Oh, the people who work here should probably be able to live here.

Thank you.

Uh I think minimum wage is a tricky subject.

Um, I mean, there's not one right answer for how to handle minimum wage.

Um, I do want to pay people a reasonable fair wage for the work that they're doing, but I I do appreciate that Lafayette can have a bigger say in the minimum wage discussion.

Uh, I do think it really differs on the type of businesses, whether it's hospitality or more service or you know, excuse me.

Uh I think that really factors in more to how we need to treat minimum wage than just uh overarching, like set ourselves on a course for a certain target or goal.

Uh yes, affordability is important, but I do think it allows us to you know look at our own selves in the mirror and decide how important it is to the business owners and how it will affect them and the community and the people who live here.

So I think it gives us options and not just having to follow everyone else along.

I'll answer this in three ways.

Um first, everyone in this room would agree that the federal minimum wage is shamefully low, right?

Absolutely shamefully low.

But we'd also probably agree that $50 an hour would collapse many of our local businesses.

So I think there's a sweet spot in there, and something that I think is lost in this fight is that so often it's it's a fight to get from 14 to maybe 20, as Eric said, or then you go no year 10 years without raising it, and then another jump.

What if we were to explore benchmarking it with local uh affordability indexes, price of groceries, gas, etc., so that at least we can see hey, this is where things are, this is what it looks like.

Now, it's my understanding that something like 80% of Lafayette's businesses already pay more than minimum minimum wage.

So I think that's something to encourage and continue to push for.

But I think what we really need to do is explore a regional partnership with other places in Boulder County and in Weld County and nearby, so that we're not just sort of jumping around.

Thank you.

I'm gonna ask you to repeat it again, Frank.

No problem.

I'll probably use you as the marker going forward or not.

I'll ask every time.

The Colorado legislature has given local communities the ability to increase the minimum wage within their communities.

Please share your thoughts on increasing the minimum wage within Lafayette.

Um I do recognize that costs are high right now.

Um, and that's kind of across the board for both you know, citizens, uh residents, businesses.

Um I think people are struggling more than we realize, and I think it's you know potentially getting worse as as you know, tariffs and things continue to move costs up.

I mean, I am in favor of increasing the minimum wage, um, though I expect most businesses in Lafayette are are paying more than the minimum wage already.

Um the the thing that I haven't heard too much yet, I think Kyle mentioned it, but we do need to do it regionally if we're gonna move minimum wage up.

We can't just do it alone uh as the city of Lafayette.

Um, I don't even think we can do it, uh you know, just as the communities in Boulder County.

I think we need to have our our neighboring jurisdictions of you know Weld County, Erie at least, uh Thornton, Broomfield.

I mean, I think we've got to bring a lot of different groups to the table.

Um even with moving wages up, I do recognize that businesses are affected.

So I might be in the minority here, but I am not in favor of increasing the minimum wage.

I had the opportunity to connect with many of our local business owners, some of whom said, I'm afraid to sign my lease to stay here another year, because I don't know if I can afford to pay my employees.

And that just stuck with me.

I don't want to lose our small businesses.

I mentioned earlier they are the heart of our community, and I don't want our business owners afraid to want to stay here.

I don't want to lose them to other cities, and I don't want Lafayette to turn to a city where only Walmart and McDonald's can afford to survive.

I had the opportunity to watch uh the fishbowl, which was put on by Longmont and Councillor Tapia Vega had the chance to attend, and many of our business owners are already paying over minimum wage.

So if we can afford to do it now without that increase, I that's the way I'd like to remain.

Um based on some proposals, what minimum wage would be.

Um I do think back to that first question also that part of the role city council plays in setting policies and creating laws tells our community and tells our constituents what we believe is important.

We are a reflection of the city that we live and work in.

And to me, um, a living wage is the most crucial thing.

People who are working 40 hours a week, um, even if it's at a job that other people might look down their noses at, should be able to put food on their table, should be able to pay rent or a mortgage and live a reasonable quality of life here in our city.

Um happy to live in uh a state, actually, where minimum wage is above federal minimum wage uh where I grew up and raised in Louisiana, it was still $725 an hour, which definitely nowhere even in the term of what you just talked about in living wage, and I think there's a major separation between minimum wage and living wage.

Uh as small business owners know to get a quality employee if they're not at a marketable wage in the skill set that they're hiring for uh individuals are not gonna apply for that position, and you're not gonna get a quality employee, and that business will most likely probably not do well because customer service is super important when we're talking about services or whatever um they're selling or not.

So when I look at minimum wage, I think it would be good to get more data from all of our small businesses and for the city council makes a decision, which they're probably working towards that.

But the key component is I wouldn't go up if the small businesses are saying they're already well above that and they're taking care of their employees.

Amazing, thank you.

Um it's hard to go last because everyone's already said everything.

Um but this is this is a key issue, and I think uh the business small businesses are the heart and soul of our city, and because of that, we can't actually know a lot of religious council.

We have to reach out to our constituents, we have to reach out to the businesses that are in our community, and they ultimately are the ones that have to give us their concerns, give us their thoughts, and we must make our decision based on this.

However, the increasing minimum wage really is one of the steps that we can take toward a comprehensive solution for affordability in this city, which is an issue for absolutely everybody.

Um I'll go back to one of the statistics that was that was given here.

Um, last year or two years ago when we did the regional uh minimum wage study, 85% of Lafayette businesses already paid more than the minimum wage.

In fact, they paid more than 8% increase to minimum wage.

That number was $15.69 at the time.

So to me, we must support our workforce, we must support our workers.

We must support our small businesses.

To me, this is about affordability in our city.

It's about making our city stronger, making our local economy stronger.

Uh, but like it was said, thank you.

Yeah, it's time with you, Anne Marie.

During the past legislative session, a Colorado legislature has now allowed local municipalities to increase the tip credit.

Please share your thoughts on this topic.

And would you support increasing the tip credit in Lafayette?

So I think it was Kyle who said we should look at benchmarking for minimum wage.

And I think the tip credit fits in that category.

If if it's 17% more expensive since we started minimum wage or whatever, the increase has been, it's also the tip credit has stayed the same.

It's three dollars and five cents an hour.

And uh that was established in 2019.

Restaurants are hurting, and I think we should look at the the tip wage credit.

If we're gonna look at an increase in minimum wage, we should also look at the tip wage credit.

It's only fair, but I think this should not be a political decision.

It's silly that we're here talking about this as a policy matter.

It should be benchmarked, like Kyle said, to some sort of data points, and we should not be having arguments about this.

It's it seems like the bad way to make public policy.

And so I I support creating some benchmarks that we would tie this to.

So I actually I don't know anything about the uh the tip wage credit.

Uh, this is news to me, and I'm not gonna waste your time by by BSing for a minute to um to fill the time.

Uh, I'm gonna talk a little bit more about affordability because I think that's the crux of all of these issues.

Um, we have a few factions in our city.

Um, one wants absolutely no new construction, the other wants to build, build, build.

We have business owners on one side, citizens on the other.

Um, and I think that a sweet spot that we're I think a lot of people could actually uh come together and agree on is that the people who work in our city um are a prime target for people who who would benefit from affordable housing in our city.

Um, you can't complain about about road congestion because they're commuting into town.

Uh, you can't complain about about like building having to build like giant uh apartment complexes because I mean we just need to start with the people that we have here.

Um, and these are people who are already in our community, already already valued members of our of our business community.

Uh and that seems like uh the primary place that we can start with is tackling affordability.

Thank you.

Uh the the tip credit is honestly not something I'm super familiar with.

I mean, minimum wage and the tip credit for restaurant and service industry stuff is something I don't have a very good window into.

I mean, I would more address this by trying to understand who was trying to make the change in the legislature in what direction it was coming from.

I don't know if this is from smaller businesses or larger corporations or you know, the the angle in which they're trying to approach it, I think is important for us to look at and understand you know where where they're coming from and you know the the impact it will have as well.

I don't know if this will substantially change what employees are taking home or or not.

I mean, if like minimum wage, they're already paying above that for the most part.

Is this something that will actually significantly affect anyone's lives, or it's just something that we need to be aware of and keep track of?

So thank you.

I like this question because it it forces us to take a step back and towards the philosophically what we're focusing on.

Um, and so the tipped workers, you know, restaurant workers, waiters are generally speaking, other than some amazing restaurants we have both here and elsewhere in the county, they're not making that much money, right?

But we focus on minimum wage, we focus on tip credit.

These are small peanuts.

We're a state that has a regressive 4% income tax.

So that some of this focus to me is a little bit missing the mark about where we could actually generate revenue.

I also like many of you, I'm probably a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that there's now tipping for things that are far outside of you know, tipping my barber, tipping a cab, tipping a restaurant.

You know, you you tip at the bookstore.

You too.

So there's there's an element I would want to know it, and I agree with Anne Marie's point on benchmarking since she agreed with me.

Um, but I would want to know what like how can we broaden the definition of tip.

So I would want to have some clarity uh over that, but just broadly speaking, philosophically, I think we need to focus on raising revenue from the Lafayette's and other folks who can most afford it rather than how do we nickel and dime folks who are already struggling to pay the bells.

Frank, I'll have a question again.

During the past legislative session, the Colorado legislature has now allowed local municipalities to increase the tip credit.

Will you share your thoughts on this topic?

And would you support increasing the tip credit in Latvia?

I mean, I think this is an interesting uh question and it ties into the minimum wage discussion.

You know, I think we need to bring all the stakeholders to the table uh when we're thinking about this because there's you know lots of different parties that have different opposing interests, but I bet we can find common ground.

Um I I think the the tipped employees who are making you know have this tip credit, they're still eligible for the minimum wage, and the tip credit is supposed to make up that difference.

Um, so I like it because we can use it as another lever, right?

Because we can adapt to what works for certain businesses, we can adjust that.

Um, we should be able to, you know, use the different tools in our toolbox as we move wages up.

So I'm not sure if this is a question I can answer in 60 seconds, but I'll just give you some of my thoughts and what I am thinking here.

I would love to have the opportunity to have a conversation with tipped workers in our community and see how they feel about it.

I would want to have a conversation with the restaurants and bars, owners and operators to see what they think about it.

I have never been a person who works in food service.

Um, so I don't know what that increase would mean to an individual.

Um, so again, I am open to learning more about it.

Please feel free to email me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Adam mentioned uh stakeholders, and I just couldn't help but thinking of somebody sitting in a fancy restaurant holding a stake.

Um who may or may not decide to tip well the person who is doing the work to bring them that food.

Um I was a food service person many years ago.

I was terrible at it, which is why I moved on.

And so I have a ton of respect for the folks who you know, in many ways are the backbone of our community as our workforce.

I think it's uh significant to remember that tipping is cultural.

Um, I mean, yes, partly we're being asked to tip all over the place because you can just put up an iPad screen and all of that, but we're beside that that just not being beside the point.

Uh the rest of the world does not really have that tipping culture that we have.

They pay restaurant workers the same way they pay any other worker, so it's not like we're beholden to some force of nature that we can't get beyond.

I think thinking um critically and creatively, we can certainly come up with solutions to make sure that people are getting paid well.

I am just kick off, I am a fan of kind of tipping and and how it can be done with wages and done right.

Um I've worked in restaurants and had a lot of customer service background.

Um, I did meet with some local restaurants here who are actually paying, so the tip credit wouldn't even affect them because they were paying minimum wage and tip pooling beyond that.

So they were making well beyond minimum wage with those tips.

Um, I could even tell you uh there was a local business desire in where, as you know, inflation and costs are going up constantly in this nation, and uh, and that's affecting small businesses more than anything.

And look, not every customer has the tip or feel that I need to go that extra step, but that can seriously help a business and being able to, they're paying a reasonable wage, but give that that employee an extra step and help them to be able to afford the cost of the inflation because it was crazy during COVID running a business and the prices were skyrocketing every moment, and that was something that helped.

And uh, so this is an interesting topic.

Uh, I remember this bill when it was passed, uh, and I remember this bill when it was introduced by the amazing senator in Mabalay and it was a contentious issue at the state level.

Uh, I remember when it was originally when it was originally introduced, it would increase the tip offset or the tip credit if you want to call it that to almost seven dollars in the city of Denver, which is why it became so contentious.

Um, but the reality is a lot of a lot of people are saying, you know, we need to talk to the stakeholders.

I have been doing that.

I talk to stakeholders every day, I talk to these businesses every day.

I sat on the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce for years.

I talk to small businesses, I understand small businesses, especially the one in our city, especially the ones in our county, and they're struggling.

That's all I really hear.

The cost of labor is unbelievably expensive, but the cost of raw product is really, really expensive, especially for restaurants.

So the short answer to this is absolutely.

If we're looking at an increase in minimum wage, we also have to look at the tip offset to make sure that these businesses have the ability to succeed and to thrive and to pay their employees because really margins are razor thin, inflation has made it more expensive, and we just need to make sure that we do what we can to help our small business.

Well, I agree with uh Crystal and Saul on their on their answers, and I I really feel that number one, I'm very involved on the business side as an independent business owner in the community.

And I feel we really need to talk to all the business owners to really understand their position on how they feel about the situation.

It is a very um difficult thing to to benchmark or to answer.

Uh, but I do feel talking to the community, because it is related to our community, is the most important thing to really understand what their needs are and how we can help them.

Okay, next question, of course, starting with Michael this time.

If an issue like minimum wage would significantly impact the small business community in Lafayette, how would you collect information regarding the topic and what pieces of information would you use to make your decisions?

Um I would always start in the bottom.

I mean, I think underneath every or or behind every successful uh small business, there's there's usually an army of workers.

Um, and I've been one of those workers, and I know that they're struggling as well.

Uh, the economy is bad for everybody right now.

Um, and I think you start with the people who are most vulnerable and you work up from there.

And if we can build a consensus between business owners and labor uh in our community, that that's wonderful.

And I think that that probably a vast majority of the issues that we can that we would face.

Um, I think there are some common sense middle grounds between between business owners and uh and workers.

Um but I'm on the side of the workers first and foremost.

I mean, if there's if there's a wage dispute, if there's issues with minimum wage and people aren't able to live in our community and people aren't able to take care of their families, I'm on their team first.

Thank you.

Can you repeat the question for me?

Just to give me a chance to think a little more.

If an issue like minimum wage would significantly impact the small business community in Lafayette, how would you collect information regarding the topic?

And what pieces of information would you use to make your decision?

Thank you.

Um, I mean, I think this really just goes to basic public outreach.

I mean, business owners, I mean, you know, up and down public road and other kind of centers for our retail are really the best place to start.

I mean, you know, is as many of the local owners that you can reach is the I think the best voices you hear.

I mean, there are businesses that you know operate regionally, nationally that you are probably not going to get a great sense of, but the the ones that you know live here and you know work here, I think are the best places to start.

I mean, they'll be able to tell us how their their finances are affected.

I mean, well, well before the reality actually sets in.

I mean, those are the best conversations with people you can have to understand them and maybe see something you didn't consider uh the first time around or even the the second time.

Um I'm always shocked talking to a business owner on what I learned from them and how their business operates versus someone else's.

So uh I think those people are the best places to go.

Thank you.

Um in three ways.

So, first, um, I think the the current town council uh city council has done a good job of uh efforts out in the community.

I think we could do more, so meeting people where they are.

Obviously, everyone's always welcome to come to council meetings or or come and dial in online, but I think there's ways that you could kind of take the council on the road.

So, in addition to individual outreach, I think you could also move into have some small business fora, uh, go into folks' neighborhoods and make it a little bit more accessible, particularly for working people.

Uh second, you know, the chamber of commerce here does an amazing job in Lafayette.

But from talking with local small businesses and listening to them, a number of them have said the chamber is a bit over-indexing on bigger businesses, more sustainable businesses, not necessarily the small businesses that are that are struggling.

Uh, and then lastly, you know, this weekend I was talking to a few of the small businesses and the team that puts on the Lafayette farmers market, which has been a smashing success this year.

I hope everyone's gone to be going again in the next few weeks.

Um, and again, that comes back to how can we really revitalize and reinvest it in the downtown to ensure that the small business folks uh have that say and not just um the focus on the major larger local businesses.

Frank, I need it again.

If an issue like minimum wage would significantly impact the small business community in Lafayette, how would you collect information regarding the topic and what pieces of information would you use to make your decision?

So I think the council can reach out to small businesses individually.

I mean, that's one way, but we can also hold like a small business forum or fishbowl kind of round table discussion where we're getting information from the businesses.

But I do think we need to hear from the workers as well.

Um I'd love to understand how businesses already afford to pay folks over minimum wage.

Um I'd love to hear from businesses on which employee categories are they only paying minimum wage and really get a sense of you know why why certain you know classes of employees are paid less than minimum wage, um, and if it makes sense to you know move everyone up together, or you know, how to stratify things a little bit better.

So I think this is an interesting question because minimum wage already has had an impact on our community.

Going back to last year, we started public engagement sessions and forums and gathering data, and that data was shared with us.

So I had the opportunity to read through the reports from both the perspectives of the workers and the small business owners and their feelings on minimum wage.

Um, I do think as a city we're doing a great job of gathering that data and sharing it with the council members, and I think we just need to connect with our workers, business owners, managers, and continue to have thoughtful discussion.

Uh so it's kind of a two-part question.

How do you collect the information?

And some of the folks have spoken to I think the uh ways to do that.

Town halls come to mind, round tables.

Um I had the opportunity to go with the current council members on what I would refer to as a field trip around town last week to um invest to learn about some of the projects that this council is undergoing, um, but I think they call them workshops officially.

Um, and so I think that would be a really cool way to get out in the community and and be gathering that information.

Um, Crystal mentioned data, and I was a high school teacher for a long time, and data-driven instruction is a big part of what we were asked to do, but I also know that data can be uh an incomplete piece, and you need that anecdotal evidence and people's real life stories to go along and give you the context for that data and how to make those effective decisions.

I think pretty much everybody has covered this.

I mean, you have the chambers' resources, you have small business resources.

It sounds like the city's already collecting data, but there's always room for what is that data, how do you look at it, and then I mean, making sure we're I mean, out there supporting our small businesses and seeing the ones if they're paying lower, how are the employees reacting, maybe interacting with them and learning more?

Um, so it all just circles back to data, whether in person or on paper to achieve the best answer in supporting that.

Uh, to me, this is a really really simple question.

You you engage with them, you talk to them.

Um, if you're an elected official in the city, you're not talking to the stakeholders and the businesses in the city, then you've already failed at the very essence of what your job is.

You have to go talk to the businesses, you have to go talk to your stakeholders.

Um, and Councillor Gallegos actually brings it up last year.

We already did this, and that's why it's such an easy question for me.

We already have those forms.

We already had those conversations with uh businesses, and this topic already came up, and we heard from them.

So that's how you do it.

You go talk to businesses, but you also have other resources.

Of course, data comes uh through studies and data comes through talking to businesses and getting numbers and getting real real facts and percentages about what would happen with minimum wage and around other topics as well.

Um, but we also have an amazing opportunity in the city of Lafayette where we not only have the Lafayette Chamber, we have the Latino Chamber.

We have two chambers that that serve our community, serve our businesses, and we must use them.

We must use them as a resource.

But again, going back to the beginning, this is the easiest question in the world.

You go talk to the people that you serve.

Um a lot of uh the question has been answered by uh the other candidates, but I do feel that a great resource to really work with is the chamber.

The chamber has a pulse, and I do I do agree with the Latino chamber because they're also involved in our community, and also talking to other chambers in neighboring communities is Erie, Broomfield, because that'll give us a better idea on what other communities are looking at, and also give us more data for us to research it.

I do feel going out in the community, which I do already, and I'm very involved with the chamber.

Um I already have a very good pulse of what businesses are looking for, and um, very approachable to listen to anyone uh that wants to speak their mind.

Well, a couple things that have been mentioned are data and outreach.

One of the problems on this issue and in other similar issues is that low-wage people or otherwise marginalized people, perhaps immigrants or newcomers to our community are at a disadvantage.

They often work full-time, sometimes two or three jobs.

They can't come to meetings.

And I would say the process that both Lafayette and Longmont recently did had a disadvantage in that low-wage workers didn't show up.

And if we want low-wage workers to be part of this conversation, we're gonna have to do extraordinary outreach, which means we're gonna have to have child care, maybe meals, we're gonna have to have interpreters because they were not as well represented as they should have been.

We did have data, we had a 600-page report on minimum wage that um the consortium of cities promoted.

We have good data, and we had a reasonable good process.

Okay, it's your turn to start it out.

Luke, there has been feedback from entrepreneurs, contractors, and builders that they will not bring their business to or work in Lafayette due to the current licensing and permitting processes.

What are your ideas, ideas to help mitigate these issues, attracting new businesses to Lafayette?

So I guess two parts.

I mean, you know, having a contractor, whether it's a tenant-driven or a landlord-driven project, um, issues that I hear is between different municipalities is there are there are different rules, there are regulations, there are different licenses, and usually it's the license fee that they have to pay to do business in every community is just another cost of doing business, which then will ultimately get passed down to whoever's gonna be paying that bill.

So as much as regionally, because most of these people are working within this region, you know, work in the area without having to go through other little specialty things or can you know be working on the same code edition or the same type of things they're gonna come across in other jobs that allows them to bid things and keep costs down, which again get passed through to everyone else.

Umplicity and streamlining is great, being able to come in, approach people at the help desk or ask questions, understanding specific codes and regulations is important and just helps deal with issues that will become problems without being big problems.

Thank you for this question.

So, an interesting case study is the Daily Grains Bakery that's trying to open and expand on public roads.

So I imagine many of us here have followed the Instagram story uh and followed their kind of trials and tribulations as they've been navigating the the challenges that Frank highlighted.

You know, permitting fees, uh regulations, this is all critical to ensure buildings are safe, the food that is quality, etc.

But it shouldn't take weeks and months and years to get these things uh over the hump.

And so I think we could explore when a business is encountering that level of difficulty.

Do they need a shepherd?

To Anne-Marie's point, you know, what if an immigrant is trying to open a new restaurant?

If it's difficult for the Daily Grains folks, it's going to be very difficult for migrant workers and other folks who are trying to get things going.

Um, and it you know, to me, this brings me back to how we can further incentivize and support businesses downtown because we don't want anybody to feel like they're not welcome here and not able to do business.

So, do we need to assign a personnel or a team to help them get through uh that log jam to ensure that the processes are swift and streamlined.

Frank, hit me again.

There has been feedback from entrepreneurs, contractors, and builders that they will not bring their business to or work in Lafayette due to the current licensing and permitting processes.

What are your ideas to help mitigate these issues attracting new businesses to Lafayette?

I think that's an unfortunate statement, and I hope they'll change their minds because Lafayette's a great community, and I think they should want to do business here.

Um we can solve this problem.

This is not an untenable problem.

Um, you know, earlier I talked about a roadmap.

Um that's something that the city could put together to make very clear here is the process that you need to go through.

Um the city needs to improve its website.

I I know they just went through this not too long ago.

It's still not great.

So I really want to see the website improve to make clear, you know, which codes, which licenses, which permits are required.

Um we also have had a staffing turnover problem in the planning department, um, and we need to you know figure out how we can, you know.

I think the shepherding through uh by a staff member is a good idea to make sure that you know they can really have continuity of service uh from the city.

So, as a current council member, I have heard this conversation in this room before.

We've had several people come in front of council and mention that it's taking a long time to make this happen.

And in fact, there was one specific business announced when I first started on council in 2023 that's still not here in 2025.

So I really hope that there is something we can do to help streamline that process and make it smoother for individuals.

I don't know if we need to bring on additional staff.

I would like to reach out to planning and see if they need additional support, and this is something that we need to consider, but I hope to make it a better process in the future.

Um I likewise wonder if uh increase in personnel would help smooth some of the time lag issues.

Um, if this is the type of problem that uh some additional resources can help smooth over.

Um, I think there are differences to consider between the costs associated with licensing and permitting, and then the processing and bureaucratic elements of uh the same.

And um, it's interesting to think about contractors and builders who might not want to uh bring their business and work into our city here because it feels like we have plenty of people who are capable of doing work here and profiting, and so presumably those folks are um are doing well for themselves by bringing their business here, and so I wonder uh what the problems are with some of those folks that that might not feel uh they're able to do so.

This is a tough one for 60 seconds.

Uh I've been digging deep into this one because a lot of the communities talked about we have so many vacant spaces, uh, and it's great to see finally some movement in South Public Area and some new developments coming.

Uh but the tough part is every owner, only every business owner talks about there's actually great grants out there.

There's new incentives coming with the uh DDA or in the economic development, Bridget Keating is doing a great job.

We're marketing and encouraging, but in the background, there's the scary thing of development is horrendous.

Small businesses don't have a ton load of money like big developers.

So process shouldn't be smooth and simple for big developers, but for small businesses, it needs to be much more streamlined.

Uh I appreciate the people that have been volunteering on the land use code updates.

I got to attend that meeting.

I've been to planning commission.

Thank you for everybody I'll do to volunteer on that.

But there's tons of opportunities to streamline and improve the process so small businesses can get open much quicker than two to three years, is what it's taking right now for development.

Uh, first and foremost, this is heartbreaking to hear.

Um, but as Councilor Gallego said, this is not something that I heard today for the first time.

Being a sitting city council member, this is something that I've heard many times.

I've heard the term Lafayette is closed for business many more times than I would ever want to hear in my in my entire life.

But uh, because of this, this is one of the tenets of my campaign.

Uh, supporting small businesses means supporting businesses that want to come and make Lafayette their home.

And that means streaming, streamlining the permitting process, the regulation process, cutting red tape, and just making it overall easier for businesses to come into our city and make our city their home.

Um, but also, like Council Gallego referred to earlier, this is something that we've already been working on.

Uh, the vacant to vibrant program is something that passed unanimously through our council, and I was very proud of the work that we're doing that would allow up to 50% of certain taxes up to 10,000 be reimbursed to the business or be given back to the businesses or just be by the businesses in order to not just move into the city but to it to increase in size and to grow within our city.

So again, there's upfront costs, there's opportunity costs, but I I want this to work.

Um I've heard for years, you know, being in the uh town uh that permitting and licensing is a nightmare, and it has taken away some businesses that wanted to come in here.

Uh, my experience as a general contractor for the state of Florida for 20 years, if I'm elected, I will definitely get on top of this, streamline the process, get involved personally because I understand what construction is all about and make a difference and hopefully do a step-by-step process that'll invite more local businesses to come and make it a very easy process or easier process to open a business here in this community.

There are programs, grant programs that the city has presently, but in the background, it's just super difficult with the permitting process.

So I would definitely streamline that and spearhead it if I'm elected.

So in the first question, you talked about um creating the environment for businesses to thrive, and this is just the epitome of that, which is if our services and our approvals and our permitting take so long that businesses are out money and resources, then we should be improving that.

When I looked at the website and tried to figure out how long does it take for certain permitting and licensing, I found I couldn't get good information on the website.

So a business doesn't really know what to expect, and we also don't know how well we're doing compared to other communities of a similar size.

Is our process longer, shorter?

So I think there's a lot of improvement that could be done here.

And maybe we just play catch-up where we hire some consultants to work with us to get ourselves caught up, and then we hold ourselves to high standards in terms of getting things turned around in a timely fashion.

But this is a key, and it is why people want to be in Lafayette and we need to support our small business.

But we also need to understand that that the code is the code in the permitting process is there for a reason and is there to protect our community.

And if it's not sort of doing that, then absolutely we need to repeal it.

We need to change it, we need to come up with new uh new code, new permit, new printing permitting process that represents our values.

Um but if if a company doesn't want to come into Lafayette because of code that reflects our values as a community, I say don't come.

Um and I'm I'm not afraid to say that.

I think that that a lot of these, especially larger businesses that muscle their way in, they soak up all the oxygen in the room simply because they have more money, more lawyers, a bigger team of people that they can send to to try to push their way around.

Um and for that, I think we need to stand up for our values as a community.

Um, but obviously, like I'm I'm a programmer, I work with performance code all the time.

Um make it efficient that that that's yeah, thank you.

So the next two questions will be asked by Roosevelt Rice on behalf of the Deaton Chamber.

And we'll be starting here.

Okay, we're we're starting with Kyle.

And this question is the question is how do you envision fostering an inclusive local economy that ensures immigrant, minority owned, and family-run businesses have access to the same opportunities and resources as larger companies.

I love this question because I think it it really builds nicely on the previous one.

Um the slowness and permitting and fees and licenses that are affecting other businesses also affect uh immigrant businesses, uh, small businesses from folks who are new to our state, maybe English as a second language.

And so when we're not providing that that shepherd or that support infrastructure, well, you know, then there's tax revenue not being collected as folks not receiving wages, minimum wage or or higher.

Um, I I think in this time with ice predation and with uh a lot of news and fear uh in a lot of communities.

Um we we look and see what happens in Aurora, Colorado.

I think it's really important for city council to stand up very clearly and defend our immigrant neighbors, um our core members of our community because it's difficult to do business and to engage in commerce if you're afraid that your grandmother or your children will be snatched.

So I I think you know, with our partnership with with local law enforcement with the county, etc.

Doing everything we can to really emphasize that.

I'm sorry, can you repeat it one more time?

I know I just heard it, but still helps me.

How do you envision fostering an inclusive local economy that ensures immigrant minority-owned and family-run businesses have access to the same opportunities and resources as larger companies?

So I think this can come into staffing in the city, uh, making sure that our staff are set up and and know that you know we we want to help those folks and and realize they've they may have a difficult more difficult time.

Um it might mean that we need to have bilingual staff that we don't have right now, so maybe we need to uh increase uh staffing.

Um having staff that reach out uh to our our uh different communities uh more proactively.

Uh maybe we can have a uh a program that you know is set up to uh as just an informal question and answer type uh event for for those uh parts of the community that want to start businesses.

So I do think we are already doing a great job providing access to different members of our community.

As a city, we do have a very diverse staff, many who speak so many different languages.

We have things published in multi-languages as well.

Um I love the support of the Latino Chamber, and again, that support issued to people in multilanguages so that it's accessible to them.

If you take a look at our council, I think we have one of the most diverse councils in Boulder County, maybe even the state.

So it is wonderful to see.

Even though I'm not bilingual, I do try my best to publish things in both English and Spanish to the best of my ability.

And I also speak Italian, Latin, and sign.

I know the council andor the city already has some thing on the books that says that they will not support the CRAST policies of some of the federal immigration enforcement, which I definitely appreciate and would like to take a step further.

Something we think about a lot in education that Maslow's hierarchy of needs that when you don't feel safe, you can't really be your best self or be doing other things.

More specifically, you know, subsidies and grants for immigrant minority and family-owned businesses, utilizing our community members who already represent those aspects and celebrating the diversity that we have in Lafayette is one of the things that makes us special and stand out in Boulder County.

So relying on some of our community members to create that inclusive environment.

The diversity is just a key component in the begin with in Lafayette when you look at the history of the lax Latino coal mining here, Mexico Mining and Lafayette.

It's just super crucial to making sure everybody's included in the opportunity to grow in small business.

I think partnering, circling with the city and the chambers working together.

The resource fairs of what's available.

I also attended uh myself a Lafayette Chamber event where they were talking about opportunities at Boulder County and Pace and the State and all that have the help in uh supporting grants towards replacing old equipment and getting new equipment, but it's making sure that information is available, and the Latino Chamber is a great opportunity where everybody's partnering together to bring those resources and make sure everybody has the knowledge and availability of that.

And the staff here in general, I mean, accessibility to staff should be available for everyone of all diversity inclusion.

So first and foremost, uh, thank you for being here representing the Latino Chamber that's an organization that is near and dear to my heart.

So I love that we are able to have both chambers represented here.

Uh and this is also a question that kind of hits hard for me because I am a minority, I am Latino, and I was a small business owner in this state.

Uh so I know exactly what these businesses go through.

And uh to kind of quote my friend Rob Glennover at the end there, this is just what the American dream really is.

They want to be an entrepreneur, they want to start a small business and they want it to grow.

But unfortunately, their path is just naturally going to be harder than other people's.

Uh so what we do to uh for us, it's really about equitable access to all resources.

Um that means you know, making sure that we do a good job of providing these resources, but also partnering with organizations such as the Small Business Development Center, uh, the Latino Chamber of Commerce.

I was very proud this past year we passed a contract and we we all voted in in favor of a contract with the Latino Chamber of Commerce.

So partnering with organizations like that, uh, continuing our work on the IDEA project, and really just I I really want to continue our work and what we've done here.

Um, first of all, uh the Latino Chamber does an excellent job.

Presently they're uh helping people at Sister Carmen's with um educational workshops and uh business workshops to help them if they want to open up a new business, a step-by-step process.

I think it's great.

And I think the city is doing a pretty good job, but I think they can do a better job.

One thing that we're lacking right here with the city is we don't have a grant writer.

There's a lot of money out there federally and statewide that we're not addressing and could have access to that we don't because we don't have a grant writer, and we probably funnel uh a job responsibility to somebody, and it it should be we should have a full-time employee looking for grants, looking for access to money and find more money for our community.

So immigrants have been the key to the success of the United States of America for many years.

We should be doing everything we can to support immigrants, small business, minority-owned business, and outreach is the key because they don't have extra staff to be attending meetings and reading all the websites and looking for grants out in the state government.

They rely on us, and so we need to be doing extensive outreach.

Um I I talked to another chamber of commerce that had a small business round table meeting every quarter where they brought people together to identify problems before they became big.

That's another idea we could work with the chamber on mentoring so that a new business has a mentor business where they can reach out their hand and say, I applied for this city grant and I got it, and here's what I did to get it.

So there are all kinds of ideas out there, and I think in partnership with both the Lafayette Chamber and the Latino Chamber, we can work on those.

I mean, excellent answer.

That's that's everything that I wanted to say as well.

Um, I think it starts with listening to the little guy.

Um if you're talking about about like really, I mean, we we kind of mess up the definition of small local business to include a lot of people who I don't necessarily are thinking a little bit bigger than small local business.

Um, but a small local business, uh immigrant-owned, Latino-owned, um, they the question isn't like how do they have access to the same resources that that everybody has, how do they go through the same pipeline?

How can we make the pipeline easier for them?

Like Kings and Kingston, Tibbo, Tebow properties and Krishna groceries should not be going through the same process.

Like one of them is an actual authentic, like local small business that we need to support and want to grow, and the other two are giant behemoths that maybe don't have our best interests at heart.

Um, so so make sure that we have the resources in city council and in the city government to genuinely be supporting people who who are coming from a from a poorer background than most business owners might want, might come from and want to start a business in our community community.

Thank you.

I mean, uh I wish I knew the percentage of uh small businesses that fall into this category.

I mean, I think it's probably higher than most of us know and and think about.

Uh but I do think it's really engagement and meeting them where they're at.

Um, you know, again, it's it's trying to, yes, they they have the same pipeline, the same thing they have to follow, but uh I do worry that these groups are not as willing to step out of you know the shadow into the light to get the help or resources that we put out there.

So it really is you know, leaning into the small town that we are to meet them and know them and and see them.

I mean, you know, you you know, probably bump into a lot of these people more than you would think um and just giving them more opportunity to find these things that are available and help them along the way.

Uh I really think we have to lean into that if we want to make it more successful for these type of businesses, Adam.

Okay, we're going with Adam.

Do we need this twice or once again?

How will you balance Lafayette's sustainability and climate goals with the needs of small businesses?

And what role do you see businesses playing in advancing those goals?

Yeah, this is a great question.

Uh I've thought about sustainability for a long time.

I don't see that these things are at odds.

Um, I I think our small businesses are working on this.

You know, we have county partners that can help our small businesses.

Um, and and they're doing that.

Um, and we're reaching out to those small businesses uh where we can.

Uh I think the city wants to work with everyone to advance our our sustainability goals, uh whether they're small businesses or large businesses.

Um I think the small business maybe there's more opportunities because it's it's less bureaucracy in a small business to get their support uh to you know do things like um you know energy upgrades because we don't you don't have to work through the the hierarchy of a large business.

Could you repeat the question for me?

Oh wow.

Okay.

How will you balance Lafayette's sustainability and climate goals with the needs of small businesses?

And what what role do you see businesses playing in advancing those goals?

All right.

Um, so we have as Rab, who advises council and sustainability and resiliency, and we also have our climate action plan.

I think both do a fantastic job of advising the city on our goals.

Um to advise our small businesses, I think something we could consider financial support towards upgrades, um, maybe installation of heat pumps or solar, because that will bring down their costs in the long term.

See, and that's it.

Um, like Adam said, I don't think these things um are fundamentally opposed.

In fact, I would go so far as to say the opposite.

I think the more that we are fostering small businesses and embracing that, the better off we are going to be environmentally and with sustainability.

I think about this notion of how we are individually supposed to recycle in our homes, and it's of course good to do that and save water in our homes, but um the impact that us each has as an individual pales in comparison to what these large companies, corporations, your Krogers can impact.

And so, of course, we want to make sure that we're being responsible and that we're helping our small businesses to be environmentally as well as economically responsible.

But I would really put the uh onus on these large out-of-state corporations and developers that are coming in and causing the problems.

Um as I mentioned in uh one of the last questions that was talked about the PACE program.

Um that was something that was brought to play.

The whole purpose of that was uh there was a pretty decent sized rebate for businesses like refrigeration or anything that was old and energy not energy efficient, uh, to make sure those are aware of those resources, lighting, refrigeration, et cetera.

So that's a great part is just making sure education of what's available and what's already out there.

But besides that, in the renewing and preserving part of uh development in Lafayette, the fact that we have vacant spaces, that's more important than the new development because we're not using raw resources as much for those vacant spaces and the redevelopment.

Um, and then the other thing is just a larger thing is how we're conserving on water, recycling is amazing, where actually you can go tour recycling facility here in Boulder County and see that they are just throwing it in a trash dump that it is being taken care of and encouraging more recycling and composting.

Uh thank you for the question.

So we we talk about sustainability, we talk about resilience, we talk about small business.

To me, that's one and the same.

We're talking about the future of our city and the future of our state.

Uh the reality is if we want to build a resilient Lafayette, we have to look at our economic development sector.

We have to look at our businesses, and we have to look at what the city is doing.

I'm proud that in my time on City Council, we passed a climate action plan, which looked at economic development, what that'll look like for the next five years, 10 years, 30 years, 50 years.

So I'm already proud of the work we're doing, but as many have mentioned, there's resources available through partners like the SBDC through PACE at the county and through the Colorado Energy Office.

There's resources out there, and it's our job to get those resources to our small businesses.

Uh so I'm proud of the work we've done, and I think the continu the work just really continues.

And I'm really looking forward to making Lafayette a resilient city.

And again, that works, that means working with our small businesses, it means working with our staff, it means working with our county and making sure that we build a strong Lafayette for tomorrow.

Okay.

Uh so I will already said um the city is working on uh uh the climate change action plan, which they developed in August of 2024, and it covers seven different areas to um make it more sustainable and uh create cleaner energy and cleaner ways of moving into the future.

Uh one way would be to offer grant programs in transportation to switch vehicles from gas to electric.

Uh also talk to restaurants about recycling some of their water.

Uh they have uh systems now that can uh use a cleaner water process and also in our growth facilities, recycle water there, which they use a lot of water in cultivation, and also our farm.

So there are a lot of areas that we can uh do better on, but I I think we're in the right direction.

The city with the action plan uh is doing the right thing and working together.

I want to say I really appreciate the work of the sustainability advisory committee and the climate action plan.

There's a lot of really good stuff in there.

Um I I think our code and how building happens is one of the ways we can be more sustainable.

Like when a new business goes in, are they putting in a bluegrass lawn that requires a lot of water, or are we helping to incentivize them not to do that?

I looked at the economic development grants that have been given out in the last couple of years, and many of them were for uh improvements to energy like HVAC systems and and so we're doing a lot.

We need to keep up with what we're doing, and one of the problems is federal and state money is gonna be drying up, and that's gonna be a challenge for all of us in the future, and what Lafayette is going to be willing to do on its own without those monies, or whether we can put a surcharge on certain things to try to fund that.

I think uh the vacant and vibrant.

Oh, sorry.

So if I can restate the question, uh how do we balance the short-term profitability needs of small business in Lafayette with an existential crisis that is facing all of humanity and every form of life on planet Earth right now?

We don't.

We need to stop that this idea that there's not a fundamental conflict between our business needs and the needs of our economy and the environment that we depend on for our very for our very lives.

You gotta start with where you are, not with where you wish you wish you were.

Like I wish we were in a situation where the environment was great and where everything was going good, and and we could focus on the profitability of small businesses.

We're not there.

Like we are in the fight for our lives.

And it doesn't seem that way because we're pushing all of this this damage that we're doing off on our children's generation or their grand and our grandchildren's.

And we need to stop.

Whatever that takes.

Thank you.

I think in the lens of small business, I mean, from what I deal with, and I deal with a lot of retail tenants in the city of Boulder, which has their own, you know, way of doing this, uh, is uh upfront costs.

I mean, you know, it most of these things require massive investments, and some have a you know quicker repayment than than others, but it it's being kind of understanding insightful at the right time to implement some of these things, whether it's a new build-out or new construction, or you know, you if you really need to incentivize these things when the right window of time is, because you know, the businesses see money going out the door to solve problems that are a long time in the making and will have a long runway ahead of them.

So trying to pick where we get the most bang for the buck and they get the most bang for their buck and their investment in their business cycle is I think a key thing that needs to be focused on more.

Um it's a lot easier going last than first, so well done, Adam.

Um three things on this.

Uh, you know, it's been coming up on four years since the Marshall Fire, and we talk about sustainability and small business success.

That doesn't matter if your town burns down.

And so I, you know, I I think Mike is is a little dramatic, but also couldn't be more right, and his beautiful family is here.

Look, the climate is changing.

Federal and state grants are banishing, as Anne Marie noted.

This is a critical issue for us.

Should the onus on fixing that be to a mom and pop shop?

Of course not.

But how do we think about Lafayette's brand as a leader?

We're a small town, but how do we think about our brand as a leader in this space?

As that money dries up, what do we innovate on?

What do we lean into?

What defensible space do we resource?

Um, and while I have the con, we have to fully resource our fire department because another marshall fire, we're due, right?

The climate's changing.

There was a big fire up in Netherlands last night.

Our resources are stretched thin there.

So sustainability that's very important, but also that security element.

What's the threat level for uh for another repeat of a fire?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Bob.

Okay, up to question number eight, Krista.

What ideas do you have to address the home affordability issue in Lafayette?

Um so I had the opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting of Willoughby Corner, and even though my role was small, it was incredible to see.

And willough is just the beginning of affordable housing for Lafayette.

It's breaking barriers.

We had a record number of applicants who were interested, and we are starting in the process of starting the second phase and homes available for purchase.

Um, that's only one thing we can do to help with affordable housing right now.

But I think of uh Willoughby's success was based on teamwork.

We didn't do it alone.

We worked in conjunction with Boulder County and the Boulder County Housing Authority.

And I think in the future we should look to our neighboring communities and see if we can work in conjunction with them.

Who has available property?

Where can we get this process started?

It isn't something we can do alone.

Something that is important is when we are talking about uh in particular new developments or redevelopment that's going to change the scope of the existing infrastructure, making sure that we are holding accountable um the planning and the development, increasing the percentage required of multifamily and affordable housing in those developments, um, not letting some of these big corporate developers get away with shrinking those numbers in favor of their own profits, and I think I've we are doing things to move in the right direction.

Um, but the thing that is most important to me there is not allowing these big companies to um value profit over the affordability and ability of people to live comfortably in Lafayette.

Affordable housing.

Passionate topic for me.

I'm actually a residential realtor.

I decided to change careers in 2024 to that.

One of the biggest things I hear as we grow into this economy is especially for new home buyers that they are fearful that they will never be able to own a home.

Willoughby Corner was great in that it added more units of availability as we're growing in population.

But when we get into affordability, it's a larger issue when you talk about the median income that decides what's affordable for uh county and state and et cetera, the that the city has to follow because voter counting housing authority is actually who sets the standards.

So there was a small amount of units that maybe really hit home, but with construction costs and so on.

I think I would encourage anybody on uh Karen Substack to read Vicky's uh writing on it and the affordability on that because it really hits home, and it's not just a simple problem of adding units.

Uh it's way deeper than that.

This is uh this is a issue of affordability.

It's not just housing to me, it's a it's a c we need comprehensive solutions to affordability in our city.

Uh Rob says there's a generation of people who will never own a home.

You don't have to go very far to find those.

I probably am one of them.

I'm one of the few renters on the city council right now, and I can't afford a home in our city.

It's just far too expensive to live here.

Uh, with that being said, I think we're already getting to where we need to be to really start making dramatic change in this state.

I think the city of Lafayette has been a leader in this sector specifically.

Uh we talk about Willoughby Corner.

Um, and yes, it's a fantastic project, but I'll tell you one statistic.

Uh, when Willoughby Corner is all said and done, it's gonna have 400 units.

In the first eight hours of Willoughby Corner's website going live, they had 900 applications.

So we still have need, it's not gonna be enough.

So continuing the work we're doing, and ADU is continuing the work we're doing in our mobile home communities, continuing the work we're doing and putting our money or our mouth is in uh developments like Willoughby Corner is the way forward.

Uh and really just continuing the work we've done.

Well, I think the uh project in Lafayette Willoughby Corner has been awesome.

Uh bringing in 400 families, making it affordable for them.

I do feel that we have to look at it.

We have to look at the infrastructure, the traffic congestion that it's going to create and study it before we can actually do any more projects.

I do feel that once we study it, we should talk to neighboring communities that have property available and work with them and show them what a success it is.

Uh, because I think it's in the right direction, and it is expensive to live in Lafayette.

So I think it is a good step forward.

I have a 25-year background in working on affordable housing.

And the things I have a long list.

Um, we need home ownership opportunities for our essential workers like our firefighters and our police department.

Um we can do that with partnerships with groups like Habitat for Humanity and other homeownership groups.

We need an inclusionary housing ordinance.

Every community around us, Boulder, Lewisville, Longmont, uh Superior, all have an inclusionary housing ordinance that allows them to get between nine and thirteen dollars a square foot or affordable housing, and we get one dollar a square foot.

So we need to reform that.

We need to look at accessory dwelling units and how to incentivize them to be affordable.

Lots of models around the country.

We need to look at vacation rentals and whether or not we have enough or too many, and whether or not they're pushing out homeowners because of the high costs we need to explore land trust and mobile home co-ops like La Luna.

I rented for the first five years.

Uh I lived in Lafayette.

I lived in five different places, had to move every single year.

It was a nightmare.

Um I got into a place on uh on Bedavir Circle with a fantastic out-of-state landlord who did not want to fix a darn thing about the place.

The microwave was literally falling off of the cabinets.

Um I tried calling the city of Lafayette.

There was nothing.

You had there was no the only like housing assistance that you had for code inspections or code violations was to assist landlords in certifying their properties.

There was nothing for tenants to make sure that the tenants had actual livable spaces.

The other thing that I don't think that we want to talk about is that the a lot of the renters, uh, none of none of my landlords were giant out-of-state um uh uh conglomerates.

Um it was they were normal people, and they were normal people who who looked at the market and said, this is a good um passive income, and I'm just gonna ratchet up the price as much as the market will bear.

Thank you.

And home affordability is tricky.

I mean, we we live in an amazing place, so that means people want to be here with us too.

Um, you know, we we have huge amounts of open space and we have a state highway, and I mean we have lots of things that kind of divide up our community.

Uh I like I mean, my personal thing is I would like more variety.

I mean, I do think ADUs are a great resource.

I do think having the mobile homes.

Um, I would love to see more apartments and condos, and I'm not personally afraid of density in the right places.

Um, it gives choices to people, it gives you places to move up from.

I mean, I'm fortunate we rented for a year here and then we were able to buy where we're at.

Um, I would have a hard time doing that again.

Um I would be moving further east.

Uh I would like to have more options and not just a bunch of single family homes.

So I appreciate when that is not the only choice, and we kind of make other options be included in that setup.

So I think this forces us to ask.

Um, who do we want to be?

What kind of a community do we want to be?

Do we want to sort of shut the door?

We've got ours, our equity jumped by several hundred thousand and therefore no new residents.

Um I rented for nearly 20 years until we bought in Lafayette uh a few years ago.

And seeing the ladder being pulled up behind folks in other parts of Boulder County, particularly our our neighbors to the west is really disheartening, right?

I imagine many folks are familiar with the bedrooms are for people movement uh and their and their failure to get some of the policy change initially in Boulder.

You know, the state has overruled our home rule, and I know that we're suing them right now to sort that out.

I think Lafayette's been a leader in trying to manage and have responsible growth.

I'm a big believer that affordable housing is when you have more units of more variety.

So when I think about how uh we're grappling with the the question of open space, the question of development, I think we need to really emphasize managed and responsible, but not not just kind of be no no-no.

Like where can we say yes, where can we be creative, whether it's ADUs, whether it's converting, whether it's offering more folks uh options for where they are.

This was a simple question, but I'm still gonna ask you to repeat it, please.

What ideas do you have to address the home affordability issue in Lafayette?

So there's a few things that we can do with our zoning code, actually.

Um one thing that's important is to you know revise our zoning code to protect the affordable housing, our mobile homes that already exist, prevent those from being redeveloped and replaced with higher priced units.

Um Marie mentioned inclusionary zoning, and that's a no-brainer.

We should have that.

We should uh be requiring affordable units uh for any new developments.

Um in our zoning code, we can also think about incentives uh that we offer to builders uh for providing additional uh affordable units, and we can be creative with what that is, but I think we need to be careful because sometimes uh the incentives uh don't actually achieve affordability.

So, for example, we'll be corner 60 percent uh AMI is the same as market rates.

So even even our affordable housing is not affordable, so we need to be uh really careful there.

Um and I think for ADUs we could have some pre-approved plans.

Thank you.

Okay, so now we come to our wondrous lightning round where the answers basically just gonna be yes or no, no explanation.

And we will start with Josh.

Josh, are you using Lafayette businesses to provide your campaign materials?

Yes.

Okay.

No.

Yes.

Yes.

No.

I don't have any campaign materials.

Uh yes or no?

No.

Signs, yes, website, no.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, starting with you, Rob.

So this one is your answer, is either going to be support or opposition.

Are you in support or opposition of the ballot measure to issue bonds for improvements at City Service Center, the recreation center, and building a new city hall?

Support.

Against.

Support.

Against support.

Against support.

Support.

Against okay.

And actually, we got one more, so why not start again with you again, Saul?

Okay, so this strictly yes or no.

Do you see Lafayette sales tax as being a problem for businesses in Lafayette?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Yes.

No.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you all very much for coming up here.

Consensus there on the list too.

Really appreciate your time.

And also thank you to the audience for coming out and listening to the questions and hope they help with your decisions when you're voting and also to the viewers at home.