All right, if you could raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I Chris of Diegos.

I Chris Will Gallego, you solemnly swear, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Colorado, the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Lafayette, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Lafayette.

And safe and faithfully perform the duties and faithfully perform the duties of the office of city council member, of the office of city council member into which I am about to enter, into which I am about to enter.

Hi.

If you could raise your hand, I Adam Gianola.

Do solemnly swear.

And the charter and ordinances of the city of Lafayette.

And faithfully perform the duties.

And this is also your certificate of election.

All right.

Good evening.

Hi.

You could raise your right hand.

I and Marie Jensen.

I and Marie Jensen.

Do solemnly swear.

You solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States of America.

And I will support the Constitution of the United States of America.

The Constitution of the State of Colorado.

The Constitution of the State of Colorado.

And the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Lafayette.

And the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Lafayette.

And faithfully performed the duties.

And faithfully performed the duties.

Of the Office of City Council Member.

Of the Office of City Council Member.

Into which I am about to enter.

Into which I am about to enter.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

All right.

So two copies.

This is for the city, and that's for you.

And so this is your copy, and underneath is the certification for the election.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

All right.

Um where is Councillor Tapia back there?

Behind me.

Hi again.

So if you could raise your right hand.

I saw Copia Vega.

I salute.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States of America.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States of America.

The Constitution of the State of Colorado.

Constitution of the State of Colorado.

And the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Lafayette.

And the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Lafayette.

And faithfully performed the duties.

And faithfully performed the duties.

Of the Office of City Council member.

Of the Office of City Council member.

Into which I'm about to enter.

Into which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations.

And then that's the election results.

You're welcome.

Congratulations again.

Yes.

At our chair.

Probably not the chairman.

I'll have actually Sebastian probably.

Or is that only so come out along here?

Mary Lynn and I will join you guys after.

We can probably the chairs now, a better option.

Yeah, I think we should move them.

Yes, I know.

So we'll get a little water and the hand sanitizer.

Do we have a balance?

You had some in the front and I'm in the back the last time.

Do you want layers?

No, let's have one layer.

Take a look at that computer.

I'll do anything.

So can we please click your open push?

Look at Prince Sebastian out here.

Okay, it's good.

Thanks.

Okay.

What do you want to say?

We did later.

Yeah, this seating.

I think it will be good.

Two.

Who would like to sit?

Steph.

Yeah.

Okay.

May I let anything?

Yeah, I should.

Yeah, yeah.

Some of the council should say it and then you both on the sides.

So we can have like two or three.

Crystal and I will sit because there are two of us.

The ladies, that's a good idea.

Mike and then we don't want here.

Okay, we smile for that one.

Can we do a silly one?

All right, no silly one.

A silly one.

Let's do a silly one.

Sure.

Okay.

Thank you all.

Now what?

We said in our chair that we can all the shot is.

Okay, thank you.

How many of you can just make the extra chairs of three?

Well, it let me in the gym.

They were good and we're gonna have to share with those.

There is one here.

No one's gonna be there for a while, right?

So we have the screen.

I will call to order the meeting of the new Lafayette City Council.

If you'd all I invite you all to join me for the Pledge of Allegiance, I'll just require our start with a roll call.

Counselor Barnes.

Here counselor Friedland.

Here Councillor Gallegos.

Good evening.

Councillor Gianola.

Here.

Councillor Jensen.

Here.

And Councillor Tapia Vega.

Yes.

We have a quorum.

So now I'd like to ask City Attorney McSala for comments about selecting a temporary chair to run the first part of the meeting.

Thank you, City Clerk.

So good evening to our new council.

Just for the public's benefit and for transparency purposes, the reason that we had our city clerk open the meeting tonight is because we currently have no mayor or mayor pro tem from the prior council term to open the meeting.

So that's in our temporary or that's in our council rules of procedure as a way to get our meetings open when we don't have a presiding officer.

In addition, because we do not have a presiding officer council, uh per our council handbook, you will need to select a temporary chair this evening.

I did email all of you to give you a heads up about this procedure.

I use the term presiding officer, but our handbook does call it the temporary chair.

So uh you do have a little handout in front of you that um has some more language about the temporary chair, but it is on uh is your first responsibility this evening to select one of you to chair the first part of our meeting until you elect a new mayor.

Um and then once that mayor is elected, that individual will uh preside over the remainder of the meeting, including the mayor per temp election.

So this temporary chair's primary role will be to chair the meeting while you're doing your election of the mayor.

Um I did want to note for council that uh the fact that you might be nominated for mayor or mayor pro tem later this evening, that does not disqualify you from also serving as temporary chair, so just know that that's uh not um a problem if that does take place, and then uh finally once you do select a temporary chair.

I will uh I will jump in one more time to give an overview of the procedure for nominating and electing your mayor and mayor pro tem, and then the rest will be for you all to take care of.

Um we just wanted to let the public know why we have this unusual procedure at the beginning of our meeting, and so with that, council.

If you would proceed to discuss who you'd like to be your temporary chair, I'd like to nominate Crystal for temporary chair.

Does that require second?

It doesn't require a second, but are there any other nominations?

We'd like to nominate uh counselor Gianola as temporary chair so we could do motions, I suppose, um, or we could discuss to a consensus.

I think if you have crystal, I'm happy to do it unless you'd like to.

I'll defer.

Okay, I am happy to do it.

So there appears to be a consensus to select counselor gallegos as the temporary chair.

Are there any objections?

No, I heard no objections.

Council has selected counselor gallegos as a temporary chair.

Okay.

So thank you, council.

And before you jump into the next part of your meeting, I am going to provide an overview of the process required by our charter and tradition for uh for selecting a mayor and mayor pro tem, and more accurately, I should say for electing, because you will, as council elect your mayor and mayor pro tem this evening.

Okay, so uh for the public's information, the election requirements for mayor, mayor pro tem are set out in our home rule charter in section 4.4.

That provision requires that the election for mayor and mayor pro tem occur at the first meeting of a new council after the election results are certified, so that is tonight's meeting, and also that that election be by written ballot, and that the mayor and mayor pro tem be selected by a majority of the members of council in office at the time.

We do have six council members in office right now, and so that will require a vote of four counselors to elect your mayor and mayor pro tem.

Pursuant to our charter, the mayor and mayor pro tem are elected for a term that expires at the first meeting after the next city council regular regular election, which will be in November of 2027.

So now I'm going to explain the nomination and election process.

So, first, your temporary chair will open the floor for nominations for mayor.

Nominations do not require a second, and counselors may be nominated more than once.

Each counselor making a nomination for themselves or another counselor may state the reasons for their nomination at the time the nomination is made, but is not required to do so.

Any counselor who does not make a nomination will have an opportunity to speak to the nominations before they are closed if you wish, but you are not required to do so.

Nominations are not subject to debate or rebuttal, and counselors may only speak once per nomination before taking the first nomination.

The temporary chair will seek consensus from council on whether to place a time limit on how long each counselor may speak regarding a nomination, including their own.

If you are nominated but do not wish to accept the nomination, you must let the city you must let the rest of council know before nominations are closed.

In addition, note that you may vote for any member of council regardless of whether they are nominated.

Once nominations are closed, the city clerk will pass out slips of paper for your vote.

You may only vote for one councillor on your ballot.

After you have voted, the city clerk will collect and tally the votes and announce the results immediately.

The city manager and I will observe the counting of that of ballots.

A counselor receiving four or more votes will be declared elected as mayor by the city clerk.

If we go through the process and no councillor receives at least four votes, the city clerk will announce the final tally and declare that no counselor received a majority of votes.

The temporary chair will then start the process over beginning with nominations.

Once a mayor is declared elected, the temporary chair will turn over the meeting to the newly elected mayor, who will then preside over the election of the mayor and mayor of the mayor pro tem.

The same nomination and election process will then be repeated for the election of the mayor pro tem.

So council now is your opportunity to ask any questions before I take questions.

I did want to let you know that your temporary chair will have a script that follows this procedure that I just summarized, and uh the new newly elected mayor will also have a script.

So you won't be going it alone.

But uh now I'd like to take any questions if you have any regarding that process.

Can you just clarify what join another counselor's nomination means?

Basically, is that a concurrence with the nomination basically?

Wait, see which part again?

I'm sorry.

If you wish to accept join or decline.

So if counselor X nominates counselor A.

Councilor Y could also join in that nomination.

They could just counselor Y could speak up and say I also nominate counselor A.

That's that's truly all it means.

And is once there's a nomination, do each of us speak in regards to our feeling on the nomination?

Yes.

Yes.

Clarifying that.

Okay, thank you.

Would we like to have a time limit in regards to nominations?

No.

Okay.

So if there are no further questions for the city attorney about the process, I will now open the floor for nominations for mayor.

Before we begin, does council wish to place a time limit on nomination statements?

On statements?

Yeah, I think two minutes on statements or person.

Does that seem like enough?

I think I mean I don't know if we need a limit.

I feel like we're all gonna be respectful of the time, just generally, do you think?

Okay.

So two minutes or no time limit.

I think no time limit.

That's fine.

Okay.

The floor is open for nominations for mayor.

As a reminder, each counselor may speak once to make nominations, and nominations are not subject to debate or rebuttal.

Would anyone like to make a nomination for mayor?

So if I'd like to make a nomination, do I have a special script for that?

Or no?

Okay.

Excuse me.

Nope, you can just make your nomination.

Okay.

So I would like to nominate counselor Tapio Vega for mayor.

I've really enjoyed working with him the past two years.

I enjoyed working with him to a much deeper degree through the campaign process.

I'm very impressed with his knowledge of Lafayette as a lifelong resident.

I value the fact that he grew up here throughout all of the changes, and I do think representation matters.

So therefore I would like to nominate counselor Tapia Vega.

Are there any further nominations?

Do we speak to that nomination after it's been made?

Or we go to additional nominations.

So that's the next question.

You can do either you can make more nominations or you may speak up and speak to a nomination.

So we make additional nominations first and then we speak to both of them, or we speak to one and then we do another and we speak to either way is fine, doesn't matter.

Speak to that nomination first or entertain additional nominations.

I think we should entertain an additional okay.

I would like to make a nomination if I may.

Yes.

Thank you.

Um why I think he would be a good mayor.

The first one is um counselor Barnes has been on this council for um uh a long time, six years.

Um, he's been a strong contributor on this council.

Um he has a level of familiarity because of that with how the city works, how to be effective in the mayoral role.

Should he be supported?

Um, you know, what should be prioritized about what we're interested in.

Um, I think I think that really uh helps him, right?

He has quite a bit of experience.

Um additionally, I would say that um, you know, I while supporting the person who's you know interested in been on council for the longest has not necessarily been a recent norm.

Um I think it's one that is supported historically on this council, and I think it's an important one.

Um I think it shows deference to those who've been on council um you know for for the longest time if they're if they're well qualified and interested in the role.

Um I think it's an important norm that we should consider.

Um and I think it shows respect to the contributions of those who have uh you know seen more and you know help us, I think also show a level of just humility that you know there's more to learn.

Um, I think also for those of us that um have been in for only two years or are just beginning, you know, there's gonna be future chances.

And so having someone who's been here for six years, uh, you know, going his second two his final two years of eight years, you know, it's important to give that person their chance, I think, um, if they're you know qualified and and interested in the role.

I'll also say that counselor Barnes is is a strong contribute communicator.

Um it's what he does professionally.

Um it's a strong skill for his, and I think it's an important skill for the mayor to have.

He explains complex ideas extremely well and literally is a professional at effective communication.

Um I would say too that he has repeatedly brought new ideas to the past two years, this this council that just ended at our workshops.

Um, I think that shows that he can identify gaps, identify opportunities, and try to help the council um fill those and act on those.

Um he's extremely engaged at our council meetings on a variety of topics.

He really asks great questions consistently and is um deliberative when faced with tough choices.

Um also I've seen firsthand his strong engagement with committees, which I think we all value and is very important to me at least.

Um, as a former board member um before being on council with Tim as the liaison at that time, and also you know, being involved with him during the planning and the execution of uh the boards and commissions chairs conversation that we just had this fall.

Um, he has a really high regard for engagement from our boards.

Um, and I think in turn that means you know, he he values the input of our community really, really highly.

I think also um he rethinks things.

He doesn't simply make a decision and then that it's over.

Um Counselor Barnes is an eager learner, and he's always looking to grow and rethink things.

Um I think he intentionally seeks out differing opinions and is deliberate in his decisions.

Um former Mayor Mongett um uh touched on this a bit.

You know, Counselor Barnes' emotional intelligence is extremely high.

Um it it's most readily noticeable in the kindness that he shows towards others, but I think it's a lot deeper than actually that actually.

He's a student's understanding of others, and um repeatedly to me has exhibited extremely high emotional intelligence.

Um I think finally, you know, as I've known Tim and especially over these past few weeks, you know, he's I think exhibited to me, you know, focus on what's in the best interest of this community and this council in his willingness to be open to others and what others want.

And I think his willingness to defer to others, be open to others in that way.

You know, it's because he wants to um help satisfy their desires, their needs.

Um, and to me, that sounds like the right chair uh for this council, somebody who's trying to find that.

So I know that was long.

I apologize.

Uh, but uh I would like to submit that nomination.

Are there any further nominations?

Uh thank you, Chair.

I'm gonna join on the nomination from uh Council Friedman.

Does any counselor who has not made a nomination wish to speak to a nomination?

Does anyone else wish to speak to a nomination who has not already spoken?

Can I speak?

Yes, Counselor Tapia Vega.

Thank you.

And I will speak to my own nomination.

Um first and foremost, thank you.

I I truly am grateful.

And just honored to be nominated.

Um as I was sitting here the last couple of minutes, kind of listening, uh trying to figure out what I'm gonna say.

And uh my partner would be incredibly uh annoyed at me for not preparing anything, but here we are uh thinking, what what comes to my head?

What should I what should I say?

But and for whatever reason, there's a million things going through my head, but there's one that I can't get out of my head.

It's stuck in there.

So I think I'll share it with you.

And more than anything, it's it's uh it's a memory.

So we'll go back in time here uh back to the fifth grade.

And uh you all know me very well, so you know that the fifth grade to get to my fifth grade classroom, you don't have to go very far.

It's right down public road at uh Pioneer Elementary School.

Uh I grew up here, so I squared everything with Pioneers where I went to elementary school.

Uh but I I think the the reason that moment is coming back to me is because it was very similar.

So uh picture picture of fifth grade Saul.

Uh he was learning about government, and our teacher wanted to kind of teach us about elections.

So, what funner way to do it than to have an election within the class?

Uh so we ran an election for fifth grade president.

And similar to today, I was also a candidate in that election, and very similar to today, I was also nominated by one of my colleagues to be a candidate within that election.

Uh so running for fifth grade class president uh at uh Pioneer Elementary School.

I thought at the time this is certainly the most important election of my life.

Uh the the thing that I I really remember, however, and the thing that's that's stuck in my brain is as we were gearing up to the big day to election day.

We had a special visitor in our class.

And I remember sitting in class, and this man came in, sat in the back, we had no idea who he was until our teacher uh brought him up and said, students, this is the mayor of Lafayette.

Uh and I almost fell out of my chair.

I was so excited.

It was the coolest moment of my life.

Fifth grade, so I would get to meet the mayor.

The mayor is in my school in my class.

Uh I think it took two hours before the teacher could shut me up.

I was asking every possible question.

I wouldn't let anyone else ask any questions because I wanted to know so much.

Uh and I had from that moment, there's many, there's many instances in my life that I can point to uh that really make me who I am, but that is certainly the catalyst for for my love and passion for public service.

I'm meeting the mayor in my fifth grade class.

Um that day, of course, I I realize how much admiration and respect I have for the role of the mayor.

Um not much has changed.

I mean, I hope some has changed since fifth grade, but not much has changed.

I have so much admiration and so much so much respect for the role of the mayor.

Uh to me, the role of the mayor, of course, it is a ceremonial seat.

Every mayor is it's um the presiding officer for council, of course.

But to me, more than that, the the mayor is he's a facilitator.

The mayor is an advocate for the rest of council, and more than anything, he's a partner to every member of council.

Um, whatever initiatives are to be pushed, whatever initiatives are to be brought from the candidates that make it onto this dais.

It is the mayor's job to work alongside them and try to make sure that we are working toward a better city.

And what better city to work toward than the city of Lafayette, the city that we all know and love.

I could talk about what I did in my first term, and I could sit here for hours and talk about the amazing work that a lot of the people on this dais have worked on.

I could talk about the tenets of my campaign and the pillars that I ran on my campaign, and the reason that I believe the city of Lafayette voted for me to remain on this on this council.

But really, what I want to talk about is and what I want to talk to is my fellow counselors.

Uh we're we're embarking on this journey.

The next two years are very important.

We have a bright future as a city.

Uh we have so much potential, but that future is in our hands.

What we do today will dictate what our future looks like, will dictate what the next 30, 40, 50 years will look like, both in terms of the city, in terms of growth, in terms of sustainability, and in terms of building a resilient city.

And what I want to do is stand by every every member of this council.

I know each of you both for a few reasons.

A few of you I have sat on council with for the last two years, and a few of you I know through the campaign, uh walking doors with you, having events with you.

Uh and I've come to respect every single one of you, and there's so much middle, there's there's so much common commonalities in what we want in the city.

There's so much common ground.

Uh, but I think even if we disagree on things, we've always been able to come to a respectful disagreement.

We've always been able to find common ground.

And I think the overall common ground for me is just building a stronger, more resilient Lafayette, a better Lafayette for a residence and serving the residents, the constituents that call this place home.

Uh, as mayor, that would be what I would do.

I would work alongside you, I would partner with you, and I would make sure that we build a better tomorrow for the people who were like me.

Right?

If you went back in time and you told that fifth grade Saul, you will not just serve on city council, you will be in contention for the mayor's seat.

Someone will nominate you like they did in fifth grade to the mayor's seat.

That fifth grader would not have believed you.

I would not have believed you.

That kid, there's no chance.

Uh that young Latino kid, he lived in a trailer park.

I mean, he the only reason he had dinner on his table was because of the generosity of the food bank at Sister Carmen.

That kid is not gonna make it to mayor.

That's what I would have said then, and likely every other person in that room, but here we are.

Life takes some interesting turns.

Um, and the last thing I will say is I want if elected mayor, of course.

I want to get to work.

I'm not interested in any of the backstage politics.

I'm not interested in anything other than getting to work.

This city requires a mayor and a council that is efficient, that is effective, and that gets work done, and that's what I will do.

I will work alongside every single one of you and make sure that we're building a better Lafayette and we build a strong and resilient Lafayette because that's what this is all about.

Thank you.

Does anyone else wish to speak to a nomination who has not already spoken?

Seeing none, nominations are now closed.

The city clerk will now hand out ballots for the election of the mayor.

You may only vote once for one counselor on your ballot.

When you have finished voting, please fold your ballots in half for the city clerk to collect.

City Clerk Beck, please proceed with tallying the votes.

Okay, Councillor Barnes received two votes.

Councilor Tapia Vega received four votes.

So Councillor Tapia Vega has been elected as the mayor.

So Mayor Tapia Vega, you can now take that center seat, and there is a script for you for the mayor pro 10 election.

Congratulations.

I have to bring my microphone with me.

We only have six.

Ready?

Good?

Okay.

Well, I now open the floor for nominations from Mayor Pro Tem.

As a reminder, each counselor may speak once to make nominations, and nominations are not subject to debate or rebuttal.

Councilor Jensen.

I'd like to nominate Tim Barnes for Mayor Pro Tim.

Councilor Barnes.

And in speaking, I mean, David, you had a very long list, and I don't know what has not been said.

I guess the main thing I would say is Councillor Barnes speaks with heart, lives with heart, works with heart, and I would love for him to be in the leadership of this council.

Are there any further nominations?

I would like to join that nomination, if I may.

I'd also like to join on that nomination.

Any further nominations.

I have a nomination, which is strange.

I've served with Crystal Gallegos over the last two years on this council, and there's a level of expertise that I wish I wish one day to reach.

And the level of expertise that she has on the subject she knows is something I would have to live three lifetimes to actually fully understand.

She knows so much about subjects that I will never I will never even hope to understand.

And like she said before, I really got close with her over the last couple of months in our campaign.

She not only worked hard, and I saw her work hard.

One of the biggest things for me is engaging with the community, engaging with the people of Lafayette, engaging with constituents.

And I saw her do this on a day to on a day-to-day basis.

I saw her knocking on doors.

I saw her talking to people at different city events, and the way she talks to people, the way she's able to connect with folks here in our city is something that I truly commend and I truly respect.

So I I would like to put a nomination forward for Christy Gallegos.

Are there any further nominations?

Yes.

Councilor Gallegos.

So I'd like to speak to my own nomination, and something I want to mention is my reliability.

In the past two years, I have not missed a single city council meeting or workshop.

And I think reliability is something that is extremely important to the role of mayor pro tem, should the mayor not be able to officiate.

Amazing.

Does anyone else wish to speak to a nomination who has not already spoken?

Seeing none, nominations are now closed.

The city clerk will now hand out ballots for the election of the mayor pro tem.

You may only vote for one councillor on your ballot.

When you have finished voting, please fold your ballots in half for the city clerk to collect city clerk back.

Please proceed with telling the votes.

Councilor Barnes received four votes.

Councilor Gallegos received two votes.

So Councillor Barnes was elected as the mayor pro tem.

Oh, I don't know.

Amazing.

Okay.

Moving on to public input.

Oh, we got to move the sign.

Sorry.

Thank you, Clerk Beck.

Okay, moving on to public input.

First, Frank Archeletto.

Well, first and foremost, I'd like to congratulate you all.

I hope you all do a wonderful job.

Basically, uh, as far as you must maintain to the loyalty of your oath, dedication to the values of building an inclusive community.

You must uphold fairness and the lasting commitment to the truth.

Leaders do not run from criticism, and they do not hide from uncomfortable request in the suggestions by the citizens of Lafayette.

What truly matters is great leadership by city council in the vital importance, the shaping of culture that puts the truth first.

I do appreciate and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak this evening to share history.

As a historian, I have offered for years the truth and facts, a history of Lafayette from the perspective of a Latino.

Spanning more than 124 years of history has radically reframed the history of Lafayette and explodes the silences that have haunted our city narratives.

Latino history has been absent for too long, leaving continuum and misunderstandings of the Latino struggles for human rights.

The time for recognition and understanding of our suffering is long overdue.

Respect.

Let us not forget that there was a racial component involved in the Lafayette politics in the past.

Let us all stand up for social justice, social change, stop institutional racism.

We must unite, not divide the city of Lafayette.

The City of Lafayette stands for building an inclusive, a healthy community.

We must continue the healing process for the Latinos of Lafayette.

Respect and value the Latino families of Lafayette.

For too many years, injustices and racial discrimination has caused trauma, fear, and pain to the Latinos of Lafayette.

You might have heard me speak about the cemetery, but transpired here.

I want to be clear.

The Potterfield area, Hennings had 100 plots down there.

This is what we were after.

We went to the Human Right Commission, and they wanted to shut down that particular area down there.

Who knows how many people in that bottom part of that cemetery?

We did not ask to have the entire cemetery basically have a radar underground to find out graves.

And like I stated before, for 60 years I knew different diggers and different clerks, and what they would do if there was overlapping, they would board it up and they would bury him right next to it.

Cemeteries across the whole nation are probably like that, more than likely.

But Lafayette is exceptionally different.

There's 200 names that is not in the database.

Mosel has maybe three.

What happened?

They had every opportunity to go down to the Henny Mortuary and get the records where people are buried, or Henny gave them to them, but during the racial component of the Ku Klux Klan, these clerks were KKK members.

Erasing of history is what they did.

Most of the people that are buried on that part of the cemetery were Latinos, Catholics, and non-Protestants.

The Paris were buried up by baseline road.

There's nothing but pure racism and discrimination with transpired in Lafayette.

I hope we can do better, folks, and realize what happened.

I thank you all.

Thank you.

Up next, Thomas Glenn.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Welcome to the new members.

Look forward to getting to know you, meet with you.

I've spoken here numerous times regarding the Rocky Mountain Airport flight school noise.

The flight paths have been changed so that they're flying southbound over 287 towards the Rocky Mountain Airport.

I live a few blocks off of there, and basically every day it's a headache.

There's periods of the day where there's an aircraft going overhead every one to three minutes in succession, one after another.

Wanted to raise the issue with you.

And also as of November 10th, there was a 60-day notice issued by the FAA as far as a period of time to object to the flight paths.

Uh so that's something that the clock is ticking on already.

I'm hoping that you're introduced.

I understand that you probably have been introduced to the idea of uh an objection letter or an objection process to be able to uh push back on this flight path that is basically put Lafayette's uh quality of life in decline.

Um I didn't move to Lafayette 12 years ago to have an airport or live in a runway basically uh every day.

They're right directly over my house, a thousand feet up or less frequently, and um something needs to be done.

It's it's very uncomfortable, it's stressful, it affects the health of our children, our diverse population, and also our wildlife and our wildlife's a big deal too.

They rely on sound for uh their survival, their space.

Um I've seen eagles and I've seen ospreys uh interfered with by the flights going over over the city, and that's not part of what Lafayette's about.

We need to do better.

So I'm glad to participate in any kind of comments or offject meetings or any subjects meetings related to this.

Uh, but again, please please do better.

And then also I think we need to be pushing for Rocky Mountain Airport to be pushing for some kind of mitigations that they're they have the ability to do.

They'll kind of push back and say only the FAA is telling us what to do, but they can be doing mitigations as well, whether it's flying higher or uh doing some deviations to some of the things that they're currently doing, what they're touching those and coming over Lafayette.

So I appreciate your time.

Please feel free to reach out to me if uh you want some participation or comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next, Leah Lawless.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Leah Lawless.

Um resident of Lafayette, and I've served as a chair of the Sustainability and Resilience Advisory Board for this past year.

Um I wanted to come and just give a quick overview.

Um, I think a lot of what has been said tonight has resonated, and three of our current council members have either been board members or liaisons to SRAB.

So looking forward to 2026 and more engagement with the board.

Um, two of uh the five purposes of SRAB bylaws are to advise city council on various environmental policies, issues, activities, events, etc.

Uh, pertaining to sustainability and resilience, um, as well as make recommendations in a timely manner to city council on specific actions relating to goals and strategies in conduct in conjunction with our city policies and city comprehensive plans.

Um, I just want to reiterate it.

Um, I think it's important.

I think our city, we have the sustainability department.

We passed the climate action plan in 2024.

Um it takes more than that.

Um there is so much that needs so much opportunity to continue interweaving policy guidance, references, resources for our staff and our community.

Um, and I think a lot of what has been said tonight kind of resonates where you have limited capacity to do so so much, and so how will you prioritize that?

How will we be strategic?

Um please lean on the SRA board.

Um, I think there's a lot of expertise.

There's new members joining next year.

Um you will receive more information in your workshop in the early 2026, but um, I want to leave with um just a final comment and quote.

I think you know, as I said, our we have a sustainability department, and it it would be great to see more sustainability and resilience mindset everywhere throughout our city.

Um in March of 2025 this year, resolution 2025-18, a resolution of the City Council of Lafayette, Colorado recognizing the global climate emergency and affirming the city's commitment to local climate action.

So I'm just going to quickly read the last part of it.

And I recommend you know leaning on that and that mindset for the upcoming year, knowing that we have so much change at the federal level, and acting locally can be more impactful than ever.

Whereas addressing the global climate emergency requires a community approach and the city to continue to collaborate with local and state organizations, businesses, and community members to develop and implement programs, policies, and initiatives that drive meaningful climate action.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of Lafayette, Colorado, as follows.

The City Council of the City of Lafayette acknowledges that we are in a climate emergency that requires an emergency response and transformative, immediate and sustained action by all levels of government, including local government, to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The City Council encourages residents and businesses to take decisive actions to reduce their carbon footprint and join the broader movement towards a sustainable and climate resilient future.

Finally, three, the city council calls upon other municipalities, counties, and states to join in taking bold climate action to protect our communities and natural resources.

So thank you.

And thank you for serving our community.

Thank you.

Stephanie Walton.

Hi, Council, I'm Stephanie Walton, resident of Lafayette.

Congratulations.

And congratulations to Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.

I was here a few weeks ago and spoke to the trusts that the community has in council.

And just want to reiterate and underscore that importance.

It is it was my honor to serve as a counselor for eight years, and I wish you all the best.

Maybe a vote didn't go their way, but it is not easy.

And even having sat in those seats for eight years, it's not easy to stand here and give public input.

I feel like my neck is turning red right now.

So you really have that opportunity to encourage the public input, and as when I served on council, we always did.

And I think that that transparency, that encouragement of community input really helps solidify and continues that thread from one council to another of trust.

So I just wanted to share those comments.

If you want to go far, go together.

And so I wish you the best in working together as a group.

You're one of six.

Um I did a lot with transportation, it is not something that you master quickly, and so I wanted to keep that information kind of alive and supporting Lafayette and the region for continuing the transportation conversation.

So the two agenda items um for that um meeting um well, three one is to elect new board, of which I am on that list and um have agreed to be considered for another two-year term.

Um, and the other um there is a joint service plan update that's um regarding the front range rail and also a panel um to discuss the RTD Accountability Committee initial draft recommendations.

So um check your email for that.

Um it's free for members, and um and so that includes all of staff too.

So hopefully um there'll be opportunities over those membership meetings for people to come and get updates.

Um the um uh other thing that I wanted to mention um as it relates to transportation um is just recognize the tragic news um from Wednesday evening of Senator Faith Winter.

Um she um represented Westminster, Thornton, and Broomfield, I believe that was her district, um, and she um was a fierce advocate for Colorado families, and she spent a lot of time advocating for transportation.

So those um I think my first um introduction to Senator Winter was at a commuting solutions um membership meeting early on during my council service, and I um uh I took note of her, and she has always been um an advocate for transportation, and in fact, the last time I had the opportunity to see her was at the last membership meeting.

Um she buzzed in there, did her thing, buzzed out, um, and um, but was was there in support of of um of tr particularly of transit.

So um I just wanted to recognize um what she did um for our state and particularly our region, um, and so it's an honor for me to continue um to represent Lafayette and advocate for transportation in our region, and so I'm happy to be a resource for you when it comes to transportation.

Um, and um you know I certainly won't know it all, but have some of that history in the background of some of the decisions that have been made, and happy to um uh be a partner with you on that.

So thank you.

Best wishes to you all um for the next two years as you uh embark on the next this next council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see no further speaker requests forms, so I'll ask is there anyone else who would like to speak?

Come on up.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council Ron Sporting 1326 Elder Road Away.

Congratulations, Adam and Anne Marie for your election success.

Congratulations to Saul and Tim for your mayor and pro Mayor Pro Tim.

I think we have a good council here, very diversified, which we all have been looking for, and we have it.

And I'm going to be brief.

You have a lot on your plate coming up after December, which I think you all know.

I just want to speak to two things which will be coming before you.

One annexation is probably maybe not the biggest, but one of the top two going to be affecting this city for years to come.

And we have three big ones: the Tebow property, the uh ranch 287, and uh Arapaho, and we've got uh Lafayette Gateway, East Side, 119th, 120th Street, and then we have uh Boulder Creek neighborhood homes on uh Arapaho coming up, and then uh something came to my knowledge through a good citizen here.

We have a pre-annexation Boulder Ranch Homes next to uh our filtration plan.

Hunters of homes coming in.

Citizens have been very active in all the pre-meetings and they'll be coming for the planning commission.

You won't see it for a while yet.

But we do not have to annex any of these any of these in but it's gonna be a tough decision.

We have a ways to go, big time.

Second thing I'm everybody's aware of, just want to keep in the forefront affordability.

I'm not talking about housing affordability, I'm talking about economic affordability for all the citizens of Lafayette.

We pass some nice ballot measures, and property taxes are going to go up.

And I'm fortunate I can afford these things right now.

But when you look at it, you look at the property taxes happening with the ballot measures, it's gonna be great improvement.

Some agree, some disagree.

We also had two ballot measures passed in the county.

Open space ad infinitum.

And also mental health.

Good.

Okay.

I wonder how many people here analyze those ballot measures to see what it adds to your property tax and to your milk.

Right now.

I think uh Lafayette is a high sales tax in all Boulder County, if I'm not correct.

We know what's going to happen with our order increases.

Uh and at the state level, we had a couple of ballot measures passed, uh which we won't go into, but it will affect us.

So I think we have a pretty conservative fiscal rational council, and as things progress next year, when we look at things, when we look at the city as a whole, we have to remember everybody.

And uh the unfortunate or those who are seniors who are on social security, tough situation.

And I'll be bringing it up all year, and very actively with the planning commission and with the developers and all, but uh God bless you.

You got a lot of work ahead.

I wish you the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh is there anyone else who wish to speak?

Two people.

We'll start on this.

Good evening.

Uh Bree Layman over on South Miller.

Sorry, Frank.

Um, I'll be quick.

And I want to offer a message of some hope, actually.

Uh we don't typically speak about this in these meetings, but I think with a new council, it's a good thing to talk about.

So the aviation issues, the overflight issues.

Obviously, it's a big concern for our community so much so that last year we passed a bill, um, HB 241235, which identified uh aviation impacted communities, of which Lafayette is one, and put two citizen members on the state of aeronautics board for aviation impacted communities, which were according to certain provisions.

So Lafayette's one, and I represent the city of Lafayette on that board, which you know I hope to represent not only our community and all the aviation impacted communities well.

But I just want to say from and not here as a Lafayette citizen and not as a board member, but just to show the degree to which our citizens are impacted, is that we had to pass a state law so that we had a voice and in that impact is yes, there are concerns and there are things that we need to do that we that we need to keep doing.

But right now, all of the work that this council has done, everybody who participated, and you know, Tanya's not here anymore, which is very disappointing.

But everything David did when we still had the round table and everything that's happened up until now.

The state of culture and our community is absolutely leading the nation in addressing this issue from a noise and lead perspective that affects communities all across the country.

So I think that we it may feel hopeless to a lot of people that there's nothing that can be done, and there's nothing that we can do, and we are doing it, and the things that we are doing is really setting a standard on a nationwide level, and I see this every day.

I hear from people across the country, I hear from people in the aviation community, I hear from people in aviation-impacted communities.

Like we are setting this standard.

So I just want to offer to you guys and to everybody in the community when we feel that this is hopeless, it is not.

And the efforts that we are putting forth here impacts not only our community, but impacts communities across the country.

So, like, don't lose hope, please.

And understand that these are things that we can do.

This is not federally preempted, recent like legal issues that we've seen come across.

Absolutely, these are things that are within our control to change.

They're things that we're within airport proprietors' control to change.

This is achievable, and I think what we've done so far, we should be very proud of ourselves, and we should take heart in that what we're doing.

Means something to the community here and means something to the entire country.

So thank you for everything that you're doing.

Please let's keep it up.

And I'm here to help.

So I'm not going anywhere, you're not going anywhere.

Let's keep it up.

So thank you.

And welcome to council members.

Appreciate it.

Look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

And if you wouldn't mind, would you fill out one of the speaker request forms?

They should be in the back and then just get it over to our city clerk.

Yes, Ken does.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Cal Bel here from 1130 Neptune.

I'll also be brief and I will also fill out one of those speaker forms, which I neglected to do.

I want to build on Bree's point with a message of hope.

First, congratulations, Mayor Tapi Vega.

Congratulations, Mayor Pro Tem.

Congratulations on your re-election.

Congratulations on your first election.

You're still here.

I uh want to hit two quick points.

Um part of my day job is helping uh federal agencies uh incorporate artificial intelligence.

And I'm here to tell you that AI is not, I'm not an evangelizer for AI.

I think it's really scary, I think it's dangerous, I think there's a lot of ways it can go wrong.

But I've been working on AI quite a bit uh in the past year with these federal agencies helping them operationalize it, helping them leverage it to tackle their problems.

And I got curious in the past month what sort of AI resources there were out there for local governments.

So I did a bit of research, talked to a few folks who know more about this space than I do, and they pointed me to the San Jose, California government AI coalition, which has already put together quite a number of local governments and resources from across the country so that like little Lafayette doesn't have to kind of figure it out alone.

And a few takeaways from perusing their their website and their resources, because they have a number of things already templatized and rubriced out for local governments to kind of just harvest and put into the field, is helping your staff with prompt engineering, helping your staff wrap their minds around AI.

Because if you ask most people, have you used AI?

Oh, sure, they used it like I would use a Google, right?

Like, where is this address?

But actually building a system, building a tool that's custom and tailored fit for purpose, they have some really good lessons learned in there.

Another thing that they really highlight is that if you don't sort of have a forward-leading strategy for how to use AI, your early adopters, your creative staff members were kind of like take it on themselves to solve problems on the side.

So maybe I'm not saying anyone in your staff would do this, but they'll take the materials, put them into Chat GBT or Gemini or whatnot, which has some privacy concerns, has some ethical concerns as well.

But they're doing it from for a good reason, right?

They want to be more effective and efficient with limited bandwidth, limited resources.

So really just want to highlight the government AI coalition.

Um they've had some really good successes identifying areas, um, you know, with with data mapping of areas to prioritize uh resourcing to address traffic issues, the tree canopy comments we heard earlier, like AI and automation can help uh identify some of that.

I I do want to hammer again, I'm not an AI evangelist.

I think there's a lot of areas that can go wrong, but it is here, it is coming, and it's particularly uh of interest to young people and some of the students that I work with, which brings me to point three.

One of the most fun things about the campaigning and the canvassing and door knocking and like seeing some of you out there like walk around the neighborhoods, was having a bunch of friends uh and their kids come door knocking and canvassing.

And so I just want to give a shout out to Frankie, Billy Leaney, Vivian, Sully, Larkin, Caden, Flora, Graham, Penelope, and Gloria, who are kids ranging from two months to 16 who have helped me door knock as I kind of explore our great city.

And and Frankie in particular, they're all wonderful.

But Frankie in particular is like the kind of kid I wish I were when I was 13 years old as she is, just so thoughtful, so creative, so generous, just like the kind of kid like you just like, oh, if we only just get the hell out of our way, she'll take over the world.

So I just want to give Frankie a shout out and all these kids that were so helpful to me.

And as I think at a challenge, perhaps for the for this new council, is how can we get the council out more into the community with young people, right?

We have the amazing youth advisory board, but that's a small microcosm of Lafayette's youth.

So what else can we do to get the council out to young kids and get them really engaged in our local politics?

Thank you very much.

Good luck.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you.

Anyone else who wishes to speak.

Sorry, I'll be brief.

Um, Mike Watson, uh 708 South Carolina Avenue, last time I checked.

Um, first of all, congratulations, especially to you two for first time up, like like really awesome job, like well deserved.

Everybody up here, like it's it was incredible just getting to know, like throughout the campaign, what it takes to run a city.

Um, and I still don't know that because it's it's very, very complicated.

Um, but I think like Kyle ended with part of that is getting off of the dais and talking to the people.

Like, like as you said yourself, Mr.

Mayor.

Um in fifth grade, like having a having the mayor come to your classroom and like personally like be there with you.

That that's life-changing.

Um yet, I think a lot of times, like when I've watched city council meetings in the past, public comment, which I think is kind of the the initial stage of the the interplay between between city government and the public, um, seems to kind of be left behind.

Where a lot of people get up here week after week after week after week and say the same things.

People nod, they say thank you, and nothing happens.

I mean, you literally have a group of of what, a hundred, hundred and fifty people who are worried about dying in the next few months because they don't they won't get the grave site that they that they paid for.

stage of of the the interplay between between city government and the public um seems to kind of be left behind where a lot of people get up here week after week after week after week and say the same things people nod they say thank you and nothing happens I mean you literally have a group of of what a hundred hundred and fifty people who are worried about dying in the next few months because they don't they won't get the grave site that they that they paid for um we have a sustainability council that I mean the environment is one of the pressing issues is the most pressing issue that I believe that our generation has to has to fix um and its front lines is in our community and how we manage development projects it's in how we we deal with three canopy it's in learning to say no when a big corporation comes in and wants to pave a little bit more of of paradise in order to put up another parking lot um and so I would just really beseech the the new council now when people come in here and say their public comment which is really really challenging for those of us who are not natural public speakers like if somebody comes in and takes time out of their out of their day sets aside the evening on a Tuesday gets up like fills out a card like works through all of the stage fright and the nervousness that it takes to get up in front of people um listen to them like make it part of the agenda to respond to each individual public comment and create motions like you guys have the power to just create motions on the fly like you can just move to do something and then it's up to the city staff to to work out all the deep details later but you could really respond to people when they come up and they make a motion when they when they this when they ask for your help um like the gravesite issue that's something that could be I mean like shame shame on the city for for putting people who are who are that's one more worry that people did not need to the certain group of people did not need to have um and so I hope that at least something small like that uh can be fixed um thank you very much for your time again like congratulations mayor mayor pro tem um like really really thank you all right thank you thank you I've asked three times and each time I had one up so I have to ask again are there any other members of the public who wish to speak amazing I don't see anyone else so we will close public input uh and the there's nothing else on the agenda but I do have one question just for our city attorney uh from my understanding the former counselor former mayor on quite uh gave his letter of resignation in what does that vacancy look in terms of next steps?

So in terms of next steps so uh now that the city clerk has received the uh former mayor margot's um letter of resignation the next step is for council to declare at its next regular meeting which will be on December 16th uh you'll declare the vacancy by resolution and what well what that does is it it essentially kicks off a 45 day timeline that the city council will have to appoint a member to fill that vacant seat um if I've done my math correctly I believe if if you do pass that vacancy resolution on December 16th uh which we will have that prepared for you and that will be on your agenda um you'll have until January 30th to uh to have people apply and uh then interview and select uh by a majority vote a new council member so what is our um retreat we do not have that setup because we're waiting for the mayor mayor pretend to join and then we'll get that but we have been working with consultants to get um options but it'll likely be in early February so that we can allow the seventh member of your council to join that that's what I would want it.

Okay cool.

Great well nothing else meeting is adjourned thank you.

Oh yeah