I will bring the city council meeting to order for January 626 and we'll begin with the lower shit.

Clerk back if we can get a roll call, please.

Mayor Tapia Vega.

Here.

Mayor Protem Barnes.

Good evening.

Councillor Friedland.

Here.

Councilor Gallegos.

Good evening.

Councilor Gianola.

Here.

And Councillor Jensen.

Here.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you.

We'll move on to public input.

And before I do, I just want to remind everyone.

You can obviously speak in person if you wish to speak in person, just fill up one of the speaker request forms there in the back through that glass door.

But you can also call in.

So with that, we will start with Betsy Ellis.

Hi, I'm a Lafayette resident since 1983.

And I want to speak about how the city council fills vacancies on the council.

Within days of the election, as we all know, JD Mangett resigned.

And in the past, the city council, it turns out takes applications and decides who they want to represent that last that vacant seat.

And this in a way surprised me because within days of the election, I thought, well, the people have really spoken.

And why the voters would not have the the you know their weight wouldn't be the most important because you know city council has tremendous amount of issues on their plate right now, you know, between deciding which developments get built, annexation, um open space, um filling other boards.

Um it's it's a lot that that council is responsible for.

And if that person turns it down or can't serve, then it would be offered to the next person.

I'm not sure you go all the way down, or whether at that point you would open up to applications.

But failure to do this really raises the question of cronyism.

Why did you vote for this person?

Was it that they had tremendous qualifications?

Whether it was you agreed with their positions and thought, well, that would be good, you know, because they agree with my positions and that therefore decisions would be made.

They're more like favorable to what I want.

Um maybe they went to your church or they're in your neighborhood, but there are a lot of factors that would go into choosing a council person when just um going with the will of the voters.

Um, to me is of a paramount importance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next, we will hear from Samantha Brown.

Um hello.

Um, I'm back again over here standing today.

I will try something different.

I will try to read um my statement, and I majority of you should receive what I'm just about to say, but just for the public record and people who listen in on um on the TV here.

Um today I would like to continue elaborating on pedestrian safety concern along the west region of the Col Creek Trail in so-called Adler Thing Group Art.

The main trail is here is winding along the wooded areas, has many areas with limited visibility and sharp turns turns.

Main trail is open for use for both for bicycles and slow-moving pedestrians that result in many risky, near dangerous encounters for both pedestrians and cyclists.

I would like also emphasize that need for safety is one of the basic human needs, and it's only second to physiological needs like food, water, and shelter.

I would like also to read an excerpt excerpt from the public advocacy group, uh feed first that located in Washington, Seattle, and advocates for uh walkable community.

Um I find that this quote describes occurring situation on a cold creek trail very well and possibly offers a potential resolution.

The quote um a major sort of source of the conflict um results between bicycles and pedestrians results that this bicycles and pedestrians have different capabilities and needs.

Cyclists generally move um faster, uh, which many pedestrians find intimidating.

Um cyclists also sometimes fail to yield to pedestrians.

On the other hand, people walking sometimes in unpredictable manner, and um which and wander around the trails, which can create collision hazards.

Um this group's uh stating the shared of use roads uh off-road trails are common venue for the conflicts.

Workers uh walkers, people walking, um sometimes unexpectedly may meander all over the trails.

For their parts, cyclists sometimes pass pedestrians too close and too fast, which can be very intimidating to pedestrians, and I concur it can lead um to crashes due to an attention on one or both or either parties.

Um this group uh saying that painted stripes to delineate delineate pedestrians and bicycle spaces can be very confusing and frequently ignored.

Um, the bicycle speed limits are not particularly effective because bicycles and main parts do not have uh speedometers.

Um this group saying that the most promising approach involves the trail project that physically separate wheeled and food traffic and in the high conflict sections of the trail.

There's a probably good um time to pause and think why the side trails were created in a cold creek trail originally.

Um in our town in Lafayette, reopening long-existing side trails back to pedestrian traffic might be the most effective and less laborious way to reduce conflict in nearby future.

In addition, there are two precedents in um in our city, reopening previously closed trails to pedestrians along Creek along uh Cold Creek.

The first example is located near a sour natural experience, and the second uh east of south public roads.

Both trails and areas were blocked before, and in the last year were enhanced by stones and logs and reopened to pedestrian traffic for good.

I would advocate to follow existing precedent and strongly consider reopening side trails and Adler finger area coal creek for safety for all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, and thanks again for your time.

Uh I put a submittal online earlier uh today, so you have kind of the full write-up.

I'm just gonna hit some of the highlights on that this evening, and uh basically I'm back again with uh this Friday, the 60-day objection to the FAA and flight school flight paths that are returning along 287 and through a great part of uh Lafayette impacting our community.

And basically uh Friday is the deadline for getting a submittal uh put in to uh have an objection against uh what has been determined by the FAA and the flight school.

So I want to make sure that you know the emphasis is there, uh, the energy is there, and looking for your leadership in terms of trying to get uh the necessary steps in place so that we can help save the future and the quality of life of Lafayette.

Uh unfortunately, over the course of the history of the Rocky Mountain Airport and others in the area.

Uh Lafayette's never really registered as an impacted community.

Um as we all know, over the last five or six years or so uh that's really changed the dynamic is there.

Um you've heard me a number of times here saying I'll have a aircraft during different times of the day every one to three minutes going over my house, you know, right above, and you can hear it in the house, and you can hear it out in the yard.

And it's not just my house, it's my neighborhood, our community uh of Lafayette is basically getting impacted by this.

Um over this decision period by the FAA and the flight schools, there's never been any kind of acknowledgement of Lafayette being an impacted community.

Essentially, uh there's no public notification, there's no opportunity for input, there's no environmental assessment in all the things that are supposed to happen in terms of a decided or a decision by those group of people.

We've never really had a fair seat at the table to give some input and actually uh express our concerns and our uh worries about how that's going to affect our our community.

We haven't had that.

So again, Friday's the 60-day response uh deadline.

I understand that there's things that are in place to help make that happen.

I want to encourage that.

Uh any way I can be a part of that.

I'm happy to do that.

And again, it's trying to relieve the harm that's being done to our city uh without our uh seat at the table to be able to express the the concerns uh as far as how it impacts our city and our citizens.

So I appreciate your time and thanks again.

Uh happy new year.

Thank you.

Up next, we'll hear from Vicky Euland.

Hi, I'm Vicky Ealin, 303 West Simpson Street, and I wanted to talk to you tonight about both the city council and the planning commission vacancies.

Um, I think filling a city council vacancy is one of the hardest jobs that council has.

You basically have to become mind readers trying to figure out who the public would vote for if this vacancy had occurred during a general election.

In fact, I checked with the city clerk, and if this resignation had gone into effect just three months before it did, there would have been time to get the seat on the ballot, and voters would have voted for five seats rather than four in the last election.

Even though that didn't happen, I think the fact that there was an election just two months ago makes your job easier.

You don't have to channel your inner psychics.

Three of the people who ran in that election applied for the council vacancy, including the number five and six vote getters.

You've got timely direct evidence about what the people wanted.

Overall, I was really impressed by the entire candidate field in the last election.

I think it's one of the strongest we've had in years, and I'm thrilled that some of those candidates are applying for this vacancy.

Too often people run for council, lose, and then we never hear from them again.

I think all of the 2025 candidates continued post-election engagement in council meetings, boards, and commissions, or local volunteer activities is really impressive, and I commend commend them.

As you all know, it takes a lot of time, effort, money, and maybe even some blood, sweat, and tears to run for council.

Well, I hope you'll interview all five applicants for the vacancy.

I'd also like to see particular consideration given to the applicants who made the commitment to run for council and who the voters have recently vetted.

Regarding the Planning Commission, I have to admit I'm flummoxed by the interview committee's split recommendation.

I've watched probably 10 or so PC candidate interview sessions over the years, and I've definitely seen disagreement among the interview committee members about which applicant to recommend to council.

But the committee has always come to a consensus about its recommendation, even if it's just agreeing to go with the majority vote of the three committee members.

The fact that this committee couldn't do that is concerning to me, and I think presents a dilemma for council.

The interview committee is designed to be a screening group for the council.

They're the ones who evaluate the PC candidates in depth, and the council is relied on the committee's recommendation because they have the most information about the candidates.

Without this recommendation, the council's basically flying blind because unless you unless you watch the video of the candidate interviews and the committee's discussion, you don't have all of the data to make an informed vote.

That's why I'm requesting that you do either one of two things tonight, vote to recommend vote to approve the appointment of the PC candidate who earn the recommendation of the majority of the interview committee members, or delay the vote for the PCC until after each council member can watch the video of the candidate interviews and make their own informed vote.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next, we'll hear from Nicole Sampson.

Good evening, I'm Nicole Sampson and I reside at 815 Argo Circle, Lafayette, Colorado.

I'll be speaking on two items tonight.

The first item is number M on the agenda.

I noticed that on the list of City Council, board, commission, and committee liaison assignments that the elected officials regional working group on homelessness was left out.

This working group was created by Martha Lotraman about a year and a half ago.

Membership includes one council member from each one of the cities and towns in Boulder County.

It meets every other month on Wednesdays from 5 30 to 7 30, and it's a hybrid meeting, either virtually or at the county courthouse.

The next meeting is either the first or second week in February.

Even though the title is about addressing homelessness, the group is focused on preventing homelessness.

Currently, the group is exploring opportunities to make it easier for homeowners to build ADUs, including financial assistance with the construction of the ADUs or streamlining the planning and permitting process.

The group is also looking at the possibility of developing a tiny home community somewhere in the county with on-site services.

I've been the Lafayette, a city council liaison to this group since it started a year and a half ago, and I promised Marta that I would go ahead and give everybody up to speed, whoever's the next liaison.

Hence my reason for coming tonight.

So my request tonight is that once council decides who will be assigned to this working group, will you please have that person text me or email me so I can get them back up to speed on this?

Thank you.

Second thing is tonight.

The council is considering applicants to interview for the city council vacancy.

I'm here to support council interviewing Kyle Boullier for three key pre-reasons.

He is the community's choice to fill a fifth open seat on council.

There are four open seats, as you all know during the election, and soon after the election, the fifth seat became vacant.

Kyle was a little less than one percentage point in the number of votes behind the fourth place finisher in the election that was certified only 42 days ago.

That was less than a month and a half.

All four of the council members who were recently elected or re-elected had experience with the community.

You were either on council, on a board, or committee.

So the rest of the council candidates that ran for office were unknown, meaning they had to work harder, much more to introduce themselves to the community.

And as we all know, when a community member votes, they vote for people they trust.

So for an unknown candidate to come so close to being voted into council says that the community had immediate and strong trust in that person.

For that reason alone, Kyle has earned the right to be a serious, seriously considered to fill the vacant position.

Kyle also has a knowledge of government policy and processes.

For those who are neophytes to government, they have to learn how government works at the same time as making decisions on community issues, which can be a challenge.

However, when one has a background in government before he or she is appointed or elected to city council, that person already understands government policies like due process, uh how to research the laws that guide decision making and the rules of conduct for elected officials.

That means these council members can then focus their energy and time on delving into the specific issues that come before council and as a result make more informed decisions.

As you can see by his resume, Kyle has years of experience working in government and has a master's in political science.

His government work spans policy creation, public analysis, program analysis and planning, public engagement, and change management and capacity building.

And third, Kyle has skills in collaboration and conflict resolution.

As you may remember in December, former mayor J.D.

Monguette recommended that council look for someone who is collaborative to fill the vacancy.

I agree that it is valuable to have council members who can work with others to find mutually acceptable solutions for focusing and focusing on shared goals, open discussion, active listening, and addressing concerns to create win-win outcomes.

Knowing what's coming ahead for this council in the next two years, I believe the council could also benefit greatly with a person who is not only collaborative but skilled in conflict resolution.

Um Kyle is trained and accredited as a peace ambassador who has experience in mediation, alternative dispute resolution, and facilitation of groups addressing complex issues.

Also, Kyle volunteers with a nonprofit organization with a goal to build opportunities for policy collaboration.

These skills will be important for council as you all address some highly controversial developments and the unforeseen issues that have yet to arise.

Thank you.

Thank you to our former counselor.

Uh I don't see any more speaker request forms.

Is there anyone else uh here present who would like to speak?

No, seeing anyone else, I will turn to our city clerk to meet up.

We do have one online caller with the phone number ending in 757.

Caller, we're ready for you to speak.

You should be unmuted.

You can speak now.

Caller with a phone number ending in 757.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Please proceed.

My name is Christopher.

I live at 7182 Street.

I just want to say happy new year to everyone and all the counselors.

But I also want to say that the guy that was talking about the airplanes, that's a thing that needs to happen.

It's really disturbing sometimes how much overhead.

That's all I wanted to really say.

Thank you.

No further calls.

Amazing.

Uh, with that, we will close a public input and we will move on to tonight's consent agenda.

A few items on tonight's consent agenda, including item A, December 16th, 2025 City Council meeting minutes.

Item B, the first reading of ordinance number one series 2026, setting the annual salary of the presiding municipal charge of the Lafayette Municipal Court and repealing all ordinances in conflict.

Item C, resolution number 2026-1, designating the public places for posting notice of city council and city board and commission meetings.

Item D, motion establishing the 2026 City Council meeting and workshop calendar.

Item E, change order number two, Diaz Construction Group LLC chairwood drive and keel court waterline replacements project.

Item F purchase order, parks and golf course equipment replacements.

And those are all our items tonight.

Is there any items council would like to pull?

Councilor Johnson.

I would like to pull A and B.

Any other items council would like to pull.

I move to approve the balance of the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a first real motion.

We have a second.

Any further discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no.

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

Item A.

Councilor Johnson.

Just a small correction to the minutes.

The minutes reflected that we asked staff to give us information about undergrounding XL power lines, but uh I was the one who brought that up, and I am interested in more than just that, also other options like reimbursing businesses when they have to close, or helping businesses get solar and power batteries as an alternative to undergrounding, and there may be others.

I know the legislature may be working on some legislation related to this, so I'm more interested in a comprehensive look and not just undergrounding, and so I'm hoping the minutes can reflect that.

Okay, so I'm hearing two things.

I just want a point of clarification.

So you're asking for staff to, of course, extend or uh what we're asking, but you're also asking for the minutes to be amended to okay, preferable.

Yeah, yep.

We have a motion, please.

I move we correct the minutes to reflect what I just said.

Uh I will look over to our city attorney and ask if that is good, sufficient.

Sorry, what was the what was the question?

The motion.

Was that enough?

Was that good for you?

That that is yes.

Perfect.

Okay.

We have a motion.

I'll second.

We have a second.

Any further discussion?

No further discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed say no?

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously, and we'll move on to item D.

Councillor Johnson.

Uh so the recommendation is that we add a flat rate to our uh municipal judge.

Uh and the information in our packet, it's not just for court hearings, but community engagement and other activities.

My problem is the principle of adding money to somebody's budget without a sort of cap on how much they can spend or a general sense of how many hours we're talking about for not the court part, because I know that's driven by court filings, but the part that's more squishy and more subjective, that there be some guidance from the council, uh, or it could be from the city manager, but an approximate amount of hours per month or a uh uh approximate dollar amount.

I I don't care what it is, but just I don't think it's good practice to have the person who's getting paid make the decision about how many hours that is, it should be someone over them.

And so I defer to the city manager if you have an amount, or you want to come back to us with an amount, or how you want to handle that?

Sure, thanks for the question.

I can also let the city attorney address how you would uh handle it in the employment contract.

So um in the 2026 budget, we included a half day of court, which is what this um set rate includes, and what I appreciate about the judge's approach in this is that she didn't set it at a certain amount because it allows for her to actually go under that amount.

So instead of charging, you know, a flat 4,000 rate that maybe was only a two-hour court instead of a four-hour court.

That's where the hourly comes in from.

And so um it is just for the four hours, it has nothing to do with the engagement pieces, it's just that's um half day of court that's added every month, so no more than 48 hours if I'm doing four times 12 on the dais correctly.

So that is um if you would like to add that into the employment contract, is no more than 48 hours.

You can add and um I can let Marilyn talk a little bit more about the responsibilities.

Yes, um, so just for council's understanding, the ordinance is more narrow than what uh councillor Jensen referred to, so the base salary includes those other activities.

But the ordinance is very clear that this additional 160 hour dollar per hour flat rate would only be for services rendered in court sessions.

Okay, then I'm good.

Then I'm good with that.

Okay, thank that thank you.

That wasn't clear to me.

Anyway, then I then I would uh move that we accept it as proposed in the consent agenda.

Yes, second.

Uh any further discussion?

No further discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed say no?

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

And we will move on to proclamations tonight.

We have two proclamations starting with Martin Luther King Jr.

Day.

Mayor Proton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Proclamation, uh, Martin Luther King Junior Day, January 19th, 2026.

Whereas Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

was born on January 15th, 1929, and has lived his life promoting peace, freedom, equity, or sorry, equality, and justice for all through nonviolent means, becoming one of the outstanding civil rights leaders of our time.

And whereas Dr.

King experienced millions of Americans or inspired millions of Americans to participate in nonviolent protests to support the ideals of equality for all, and was a motivating force behind a civil rights movement that had as its goal the creation of a society tolerant of all races, cultures, and nationalities.

And whereas the celebration of Dr.

King's birthday is intended as a time for all Americans to reaffirm their commitment to the basic principles that underlie our Constitution, equality and justice for all.

And whereas Dr.

King said, quote, everybody can be great because everybody can serve, unquote.

As we honor this and celebrate his extraordinary life, we remain committed to promoting equality and freedom through service to our communities.

And whereas both state and national observances of his life will focus on the importance of individual volunteerism and a commitment to community service as a way to break down social and economic barriers and to bring people together to focus on their common concern and interest.

Now, therefore, the City Council of the City of Lafayette formally recognizes Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

for his commitment to human rights and his work to improve the quality of life for all members of society and hereby designate January 19th, 2026 as Martin Luther King Jr.

Day in Lafayette.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second, and I want to definitely open this up for uh for comments, discussion.

Anyone who would like to speak up.

No one, okay.

Oh, council.

Maybe that's up.

Uh I would just like to say volunteering when you have an awful lot on your plate anyway, can be quite challenging.

But volunteering doesn't just include big um stated commitments.

We have a snow angels program, which that can be your volunteership if that's what's in your bandwidth.

That's what you can do.

Uh help your neighbors out, clean in their sidewalk, uh, take their trash cans, not their trash, their trash cans, back up after they're dumped.

Uh you can do very simple things with with with whatever's in your your bandwidth.

So it doesn't have to be a lot.

Thank you so much.

Amazing.

And I will take this time just to uh make sure that we uh promote the 21st annual Martin Luther King Jr.

Day celebration uh happening at the Rec Center.

That's Monday, January 19th, uh, from 10 to 1230.

Uh but we do have a motion and a second, and I don't think any further discussion.

So all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed saying no?

No one opposed, that passes unanimously.

Moving on to our next proclamation, National Radon Action Month.

Counselor Gianolo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Proclamation for National Radon Action Month, January 1st through 31st, 2026.

Whereas radon is an invisible voteless radioactive gas that threatens the health of our residents and their families, and whereas radon gas is a group one carcinogen known to cause lung cancer in humans with prolonged exposure, and whereas the Colorado Rocky Mountain has been ranked zone one, an area with the highest radon potential possible by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, and whereas Colorado residential radon data has shown 50% of Colorado homes tested as being at or above the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency radon action level of four pico curie per liter of air, and whereas any home in Lafayette may have elevated levels of radon, even if homes in the same neighborhood do not.

And whereas supporting recommended radon practices and policies to reduce radon exposure is important to protect our community's health and welfare, and whereas testing for radon is simple and inexpensive, and whereas identified radon problems can be fixed.

And whereas Boulder County Public Health, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, and the American Lung Association are supporting efforts to encourage Americans to test their homes for radon, have elevated levels of radon reduced, and have new homes built with radon resistant features.

Now, therefore, the mayor and the city council of the city of Lafayette, Colorado, to hereby declare January 1 through 31, 2026, National Radon Action Month in Lafayette, and encourage residents to learn more about the impacts of radon exposure and test their homes for increased levels of radon.

So moved.

Second.

We have a second.

Any further discussion on this proclamation?

I don't see any further discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed say no.

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

We will move on now to presentations and we will begin with the capital bond measure update for that.

No longer new, but still relatively new.

Chief Financial Officer.

All right.

Well, good evening, Mayor and City Council.

I had a falser, CFO for uh the city.

Um, as well this evening, we have Maddie from Hilltop Securities, um, who's the city's municipal advisor, and she's gonna uh take a part of this uh as well.

So just to lay out our agenda, we have a program overview, bond issuance process overview, and market update.

Those are uh Maddie will take care of those and any questions.

And just want to reiterate that there are no decisions required this evening.

This is an update uh on the history, process, and timeline, and we anticipate coming back for regular updates.

So just some history on the capital bond measure.

So started with some discussions with city council in January 28th of 25.

Uh, more discussion around project prioritization, financial analysis, and poll scoping in February 28th at that meeting.

Uh, then there was further conduct uh conducted uh engagement and polling, which resulted in a report and review of findings on May at the May 27th City Council meeting.

Uh, received final direction from council on those projects and financing on July 1.

Uh, then there was a community outreach and education.

Ballot language was certified on August 19th at that meeting, and then there was an election and um passage of the vote for consideration of the capital projects.

So project identification and financing options.

Uh so council considered um, as you as you all most likely know, considered the capital project needs across the city of Lafayette and identified uh the most significant uh improvements um that were needed.

Those identified were the Bob Burger Recreation Center, City Hall, the service center, uh, and also we considered uh long-term financing required due to the cost and the and the budget constraints.

So there was discussions around financing, um, and then whether that was a sales or property tax uh repayment, and so all those options were considered.

So, just a little um additional information on the projects themselves.

So the rec center, um, the scope for that was to expand that facility by approximately 30% and renovate some portions, including the aquatics complex and community programming space.

The cost estimate was 34 million for design construction and other associated costs.

And the timeline was one year of design, informed by community input and 18 to 24 months of construction.

Um facilities have a lifespan, and the aquatic center has reached the end of its useful life.

These investments will address failing infrastructure that has become cost prohibitive to maintain and repair.

This project will support our growing older adult population and families and youth with affordable activities and community spaces.

The civic center, uh that project's scope includes construction of a new three 33,000 square foot building on vacant land owned by the city in Old Town to increase community space for residents to build capacity for future growth and improve building efficiency.

The cost estimate for that project is 34 million for design construction and other associated costs.

That timeline is one year of design, informed by community app input and again 18 to 24 months of construction.

The existing city hall does not meet current and future service needs and will require significant maintenance investments in the coming years.

The new civic center brings city hall, council chambers, municipal court, planning and building, and city administrative services all into one civic center.

This is also an investment in our downtown quarter, and we'll create an engaging civic space.

Lastly, we have the service center.

The scope for this is to restructure and renovate the building's interior to improve efficiency, enhance staff safety, and expand the building's fleet maintenance bays and storage facilities.

This cost estimate is six million for design construction and associated costs.

That timeline is six months of design and 12 months of construction.

So some history on the community engagement during the process to consider these capital projects.

So there were a number of opportunities for community engagement, including nine public meetings that were held, polling of 788 residents and survey responses from 230 respondents, informal engagement through informational stations at four city facilities and three public events, digital communication through social media, newsletters, online engagement platform and website, and targeted informational materials to registered voters, including postcards and text messaging alerts.

So again, here's just a summary of where they all city council ended up.

So you have the three projects, which included the Bob Berger Recreation Center, the Civic Center, the Service Center for total debt issuance of 74 million over 20 years repayment, which corresponds to an estimated annual property tax increase for the average home price, which is approximately 280 dollars per year beginning in 2027.

As the city plans to issue bonds later in 2026, payment would begin in 2027.

Maddie will provide more detail later in the presentation regarding the issuance of the bonds.

And lastly, just a final comment as our purchasing power diminishes over time, the cost of these projects will only increase if they are pushed further out into the future.

So now I'm gonna hand oh actually, this additional information, sorry.

Um design and pre-construction planning.

This is what's ongoing right now.

Um at the rec regarding the rec center, an RFP's been drafted, we'll post that by the end of the month.

We anticipate a contract for council consideration early in second quarter.

That includes a robust community engagement process for the service center.

We're currently drafting an RFP.

We anticipate a contract for council consideration early to mid second quarter, and the civic center.

We are drafting and postplan to draft and post an RFP after substantial work has been done on the Rec Center and the Service Center.

That also includes a significant community engagement process.

So some internal and external resources that will have to be utilized for the to move these projects forward, projects forward.

Capital projects are required to be 85% complete within three years of bond issuance.

So this requires a multi-year work plan item, the largest bond package in recent history, which will require dedicated staff and resources.

So we have internal staff from the city manager's office, finance, public works, planning and building, and community services working on these projects.

And now I'm going to hand it over to Maddie.

Thanks.

Good evening, Council.

Thanks for having me.

I thought I would start off.

Uh I know some of you are familiar with me, you saw a lot of me last year, but I know there were some new members this evening.

So I did just want to introduce myself and kind of clarify what our firm does.

So my name is Maddie Proudonovic.

Uh, I work for Hilltop Securities.

We uh serve as municipal advisor to local governments throughout the state of Colorado, um, throughout the nation, but my my colleague Jason and I focus here solely in the state.

I've been doing this for almost 11 years now, and my colleagues been doing it for about 25 years.

We have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients.

So we are required by all the things that we are registered with through the SEC and MSRB to act on behalf of our clients, which in this instance obviously is the city and you all.

So we were engaged with the city early last year to start this process in evaluating financing options.

We obviously came as Heather was discussing a lot of those meetings.

We were here and discussing sales tax versus property tax, tax impacts, those types of things.

I think we discussed a lot last year that you are not alone in the need to support your critical infrastructure, particularly as we reach sort of that 50-year-ish point on a lot of developments here, particularly in northern Colorado.

Um, and uh you all acted very quickly and um thoroughly and engaged with the community in a way that was impressive to see candidly.

Um, and so when as we have a lot of folks that are evaluating those similar needs, we kind of point to you all as a way to mobilize quickly and get things on the ballot.

So with that, I would just say a big kudos to you all to uh for the successful election.

That's a great uh great measure of community um trust and feedback.

So while voters authorize those bonds at the election last November, City Council actually has to pass an ordinance in order for the city to be able to issue those bonds.

So you essentially have to authorize that.

Um, as Heather mentioned, now that the election has passed, the city's starting on some of those diligence items for design.

And because of that, we're not quite in a position to actually go forward with the bond issuance sitting here today.

Um, and that is primarily related to that 85% test that is a requirement from the IRS that you have to have a reasonable expectation at the time of issuance to spend 85% of proceeds within three years, and that is really kind of to prevent arbitrage, right?

They don't want you borrowing tax exempt and then earning a whole bunch of money on that.

So as a result of that, we are sort of in the preliminary stages from evaluating the bond issuance side of things while city staff continues to work and engage with the community on the actual design elements until we're in a position where we actually feel pretty comfortable to go forward with issuing those bonds and starting true development on those projects.

The bond issuance process typically takes about three to four months from start to finish from when city staff basically calls us and says we're ready to go.

I will note that the resolution that was passed in August to approve the ballot question itself, included a reimbursement provision, which actually allows the city now to continue to work on the projects and spend available cash of the city and then be reimbursed with those bond proceeds at issuance.

So that does give you a little bit of wiggle room, assuming there are funds available to start on those design costs and pay some of those fees, and then you'll get that money back when we actually go to issue the bonds.

What's presented here is a very preliminary and very high-level timetable, assuming that we would be issuing bonds sometime in mid to late September and closing shortly thereafter.

So proceeds in hand essentially in October.

This is not by any means set in stone.

This is sort of from chatting with city staff as to when they thought might be ready to mobilize on actually construction.

This would is with what we kind of came up with, but it can very easily be moved.

There are a few terms in there that I want to touch base on a little bit, and then obviously can answer questions if there are any.

There are two sale types.

One is competitive, the other is negotiated.

One is not necessarily better than the other.

The city has a past practice of using a competitive sale, which was done for the water reclamation bonds back in 2021.

What that process entails is that we essentially create a document that's called the notice of sale.

You'll see that reference on the slide, where that is posted to the market and it specifies how much is being sold, what the credit is, what time they're being sold at, and then the bidding platform.

So it's essentially like an auction site online.

And then purchasers or underwriters, so your banks that you might hear of from a Wall Street perspective, the JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, as well as more locally represented firms like Stiefel and Piper Sandler are able to bid on those bonds all at once.

So unlike they can't pick and choose, where they would bid on the full issuance amount at that time, and the firm that proposes the lowest interest costs essentially wins the bid, and that's who the city sells its bonds to.

That process works really well and is supported for high-rated transactions as well as like a typical credit, which a general obligation bond is about as strong as you can get.

And so those generally favor that competitive sale process.

The two marketing documents that are noted on here, the preliminary official statement and notice of sale, the notice of sale I just mentioned as it relates to that sale process.

Preliminary official statement is the primary disclosure document of the city.

You can think of it as like a prospectus if you're thinking more on kind of a public market space.

And it includes a lot of financial information about the city.

So it'll include information about the city's general fund, fund balances, obviously, in this instance it's property tax.

There will be a lot of information about assessed valuation and development and things like that within the city.

And then there are certain things that are dictated within that document to be published on a go forward basis for investors who end up buying those city's bonds.

And then finally on the credit rating side, the city does have general allocation bonds outstanding.

So you do have a credit rating of AA plus from SP already.

Based on the anticipated size of the transaction, we would continue to just use one rating.

There are three main rating agencies, SP, Moody's and Fitch.

SP and Moody's are kind of the primary agencies we work with mostly here in Colorado.

We typically don't recommend going to a second rating agency unless we're talking about a transaction size closer to 100 million or so.

And that really is a question of bang for the buck.

There are some investors that above a certain size will require a second rating, but we also want to make sure those are costly.

So we want to make sure that that interest rate benefit is there of having second rating in this instance, given the anticipated size, we don't think that's the case.

So we would recommend just moving forward with SP, and we don't anticipate a material change in that rating, just based on the city's current financials.

And that process I should say would coincide with the actual issuance process, so we won't actually go to SP and have any calls with them until you know mid to late August, based on this schedule.

Some participants that you'll see probably at future meetings as we actually get closer to the issuance timeline that I just wanted to kind of alert you all on is uh the folks listed on this slide.

Um primarily bonded disclosure council, that is Butler Snow.

Um they also were here last year as they actually helped draft that uh resolution and the ballot question uh that was put to the voters in November.

Um the bond side of their house does the uh legal opinions as it relates to the authority to actually issue the bonds, as well as that tax exempt opinion, uh which is obviously important for investors, and then the disclosure council side, if it's not obvious, they describe they draft the disclosure document and and are really excellent in that regard.

Municipal advisor is us, um, which I've already described.

The underwriter or purchaser will be determined through that sale process that I described.

Again, the rating agency, um, we anticipate using SP in this instance, and then the paying agent, um, you know, back in the day, this paying bonds used to be much more complicated when you had actual coupons.

Um, but in this instance, uh, you do not track who owns your bonds.

You don't have to keep a record of them.

You're essentially paying somebody a very minimal fee to do that for the city, and they then also make sure that those funds are remitted to the appropriate holders.

Um, and then touching on a brief market update.

Um, so you know, obviously we were here a lot last year, particularly around the time when rates, as you might recall, were going a little crazy, um, particularly in that April time frame post tariff implementation.

Um that said, on an overall historical basis, um, we're we're in pretty decent shape from a 20 to 30 year average.

I think it's really common for a lot of folks right now to say interest rates are really high, and it feels like that because rates were at all-time lows in 2020 and 2021 that most of us will probably not see again in our lifetimes.

And so uh it feels high.

Um, that said on the tax exempt side, and I will say that's specific to this versus like mortgage rates, which have maintained persistently higher than people, I think have anticipated.

Um, but tax exempt rates in general are kind of falling into historical averages right now.

If you look to the far right of that, you'll see that spike, um, which that was post tariff implementation that happened.

I think we had like a hundred basis point of interest rate gain over three trading days, um, and then a lot of volatility that followed while while rates stayed relatively high.

And then as things have somewhat calmed down, we have seen a bit of a particularly last uh late summer, early fall, we saw a reduction in rates, um, and then they've stayed pretty constant.

Honestly, the last like six to eight weeks of 2025, uh, we're pretty mellow from an overall market perspective.

As we look into 2026, uh, we generally anticipate that we'll be range bound, so meaning rates will move up and down, you know, day over day, but we don't anticipate major swings or major volatility, all with the caveat that we have no idea what is going to happen on a you know domestic and global scale, um, as far as either economic or obviously other cultural or or um uh war type of issue.

So um we'll that's all to be determined.

Um, I will say, given uh what has happened in the last six days or so, um, markets have actually been relatively calm on the bond side.

I don't know what that says about how people view the world as it is today, but um that this is just normal.

So um, but in the for the most part, we do not anticipate major volatility going into this year.

As I mentioned, we're slightly above historical 20-year averages.

Um, we expect to say kind of around that, pending other market events.

Obviously, generally, typically global chaos means lower interest rates.

Um, but uh that obviously also did not necessarily play out in 2025 either.

So uh we will see how that goes.

Um, given that the city is plan not planning to issue bonds until later next year.

This goes to what Heather brought up earlier.

The city did not certify a mill levy for these bonds in December for payment in 2026.

So residents, community members will not pay any taxes as it related to that ballot initiative this year.

That will not happen until those taxes are certified in December of this year and then paid next year in 2027.

Um, we do anticipate the bonds will have a 20-year term overall, um, so final maturity in 2046 with an issuance in 2026, and then based on rates as of about a month ago, but again, rates haven't really changed all that much in the past four weeks.

Um, the estimated city's borrowing rate right now is about 4.15%.

Um, the parameters that were in that, so if you remember the ballot question itself, there were three main numbers in there: a par amount, a total repayment number, and a maximum annual number.

Those total repayment and maximum annual numbers assumed an interest rate of five percent.

So we do have some possibility for some potential volatility if needed going into the year.

Uh, and then those interest rates will be finalized once bonds are actually priced, which again is expected to occur in mid September, but could obviously change uh depending on the city's time.

So I know that was a lot.

Yes.

Amazing.

Thank you.

So before I turn it over to questions, I just want to remind the public and of course council.

There are no ordinances tonight.

Of course, we're not making any decisions tonight.

We're certainly not approving any sort of issuance of bonds tonight, but this is an excellent opportunity to speak to both uh Hilltop Securities and our our amazing CFO.

So any questions from any counselors?

Counselor Jensen.

I'm never having done this before.

I don't I appreciate the background info.

If something weird should happen and interest rate should go above the 5% we anticipated, what happens?

We essentially just wouldn't be able to issue all of it at that time.

So we are bound by those parameters.

I have never knocked on wood had an instance where we haven't been able to stay within the parameters.

Um but if that were to happen, we essentially just cannot issue all of the voter authorization.

What would likely happen given the sensitivity around these projects is we would kind of hit pause, right?

If if there's a spike in interest rates, even if what happened in April last year with tariffs were to happen again now, we would still be below that 5% parameter.

Um so from that perspective, we don't have a ton of concern.

But what we would likely do is real re-evaluate the timing of issuance because we want to make sure that the city is able to get all the money that it needs to fund those projects rather than partially funding them.

In a very, very worst-case scenario, you technically can go back to voters to adjust those parameters.

We would not suggest doing that unless it was absolutely necessary.

Council Friendland.

Thank you.

Umks throughout this whole process for the guidance, it's been really helpful and today as well, of course.

Um, I just want to make sure I'm understanding sort of seems like what the plan is basically.

So rec center, server center, um, start get an RFP out on the street, start design, pre-construction, and then probably do another RFP for construction.

And once substantial work is done, not substantial completion, but substantial work of some kind on those two projects, that's when we would then do consider doing we we would then start the process on the civic center.

Am I understanding that right?

Yeah, so we're gonna start the process kind of concurrently with the RFP process, but issuing the RFP and getting it under construction, we'll probably have about a year lag.

That way, again, we can have two issuances, so therefore we're not doing one big large one having to spend 85% of 74 million in three years.

It would be, you know, split in half, roughly if you want it, and that would be that first three years you had to spend it for those two projects.

Like we kind of talked, and again, all subject to your approval in August.

So we've got a lot of time to we'll be back often again.

Um, and then the second one we would anticipate probably 11 to 12 months later would issue the debt for the civic center, but we will be because these are large complicated projects starting the work, just not the actual issuance.

Right.

Is the anticipated plan?

Thank you.

And that was yeah, my sort of where I was going was like, are we doing two issuances?

I assumed yes.

Thank you for that confirmation.

That is the plan again, subject to your approval.

Any other questions from council?

Council Janella.

So I uh just a couple quick questions about the RFP process.

So um for staff.

Um, you know, there was a discussion about community engagement, and I'm just unclear on is the community engagement on the RFP process, is the community engagement following the RFP process?

Does the public get an opportunity to comment on the RFP?

I mean, I don't I don't know that that's appropriate or not, but just looking for some guidance there.

Sure.

Yeah, so we did a lot of community engagement through uh getting to this point, and so a lot of the RFP is based upon feedback that we had there.

The RFP doesn't really stipulate what the project looks like, it's just getting the consultants on board that have the qualifications to do design or to do construction, kind of depending on how you structure a design build contract.

Um so it would be more like getting the right people on board that then do the community engagement to help inform the design again based upon engagement where we've already received, and then you know, some of the the future outgoing ones, and obviously engagement by some of our various boards, like our older adults board is very actively eager to see kind of participation in some of the feedback on it.

So, yes, it would be less on the RFP process, more on the design build.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you so much.

Councilor Gallegos.

So the service center is the least expensive and the least time consuming projects.

Is there any chance we can expedite that project because of the safety concerns?

On a issue, I can speak to an issuance side of the city staff can speak to the design and construction side.

From a uh economies of scale perspective, that project, particularly because it was six million dollars.

It would be one thing if we were talking about one of the larger ones.

Um you're paying a lot of costs to issue the bonds to enter into those obligations to then have to do it again, you know, relatively soon thereafter.

Um, so from our perspective, we typically recommend that you kind of wait and try and lump you know what you can together as uh city manager mentioned.

You know, we're talking about splitting this up into two issuances, the exact dollar amounts between the two can vary, um, but it would be uh it not to say that it doesn't happen, but it would be odd to come and sell bonds as an example like three months from now and then come back in September, um, just because you're essentially paying those costs twice for something that could kind of be consolidated into one.

And then from the project standpoint, if you'll um know where you are trying to get this in August and doing all the pre-design so we could be reimbursed, and so um, I will say all three facilities have safety concerns.

I recognize this as a um the the age of this building is the oldest one, and so absolutely, and that's why we're trying to time it to where we're drafting both of the recenter RFPs now so that we can hit the ground running once we issue the debt and have the money coming in.

Thank you, but I hear you.

Council Friday.

I would also say that I think I think this is a pretty fast timeline.

So I think we are we are going quick on these first two, especially.

Um, so you just said something about the RFP that I just want to clarify because it in the presentation to me, the way I'm reading it, the RFP, especially that's going out for you know the end of the month.

Um, I guess yeah, the the two that are like sort of on deck.

End of the month, RFP for recenter, uh RFP for service center, probably shortly after that.

Are those those are just design and pre-construction planning, or are those also construction RFPs?

Is that is it all um so right now the way we have them structured is that we're looking at the service center to do basically a sort of design build.

Um so that project would include both components and we would bid out for all at once, and then we're looking at the recreation center to do design bid build, and so we would go out for design, and then we would go back out to bid for construction.

Thank you so much for that.

And both of those will include well, the service center will not include really any um public engagement because it's not really a public-facing building, but the recenter through that design process will have that public engagement component.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions from council?

I have a question of Heather, but go on.

I hope I can answer so we we talked about adding a project manager, which makes sense.

Is that out of the bond funds or out of operational dollars for the city?

Yeah, I assume it would come out of the bond funds.

That's a reimbursable cost.

Okay.

Amazing.

I don't see any other questions.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Um with that, we will move on to regular business.

Our first and only item, uh, amendments to the model traffic code, and for this, we have our deputy city attorney, Aaron Poe.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of City Council Aaron Poe, Deputy City Attorney.

And I'm here tonight to present proposed amendments to the model traffic code.

Uh the agenda for this item is a quick background in the model traffic code.

Uh, then we have three proposed amendments and finally motion language.

The model traffic code is developed by CDOT.

It was last amended in 2024.

It provides a system of traffic regulations consistent with state law and generally conforms to similar regulations throughout the state and nation.

Lafayette last adopted the 2024 version with local amendments in 2025.

And adoption allows us to be consistent with other jurisdictions but still exercise local preferences.

Uh, we have three proposed amendments tonight.

Uh, one is incorporating a state law update regarding passing of a school bus.

Two is incorporating a state law update regarding dismissal of failure to register a vehicle ticket.

And third is readopting a local amendment regarding operation of a default judgment when a defendant does not appear for court.

Okay, and our first proposal re regarding passing a school bus.

Prior to House Bill 251230, a painted median was enough to divide a highway, and therefore vehicles did not have to stop for a school bus when traveling in the opposite direction.

House Bill 251230 amended the state law to delete the word painted from the type of medians which divide a highway, effectively requiring vehicles in the opposite direction in a lane of traffic separated by a painted median to now stop for a school bus.

So adopting this amendment will create a consistent requirement for vehicles to stop for a school bus in the city of Lafayette.

The second proposal concerning dismissal of failure to register a vehicle tickets.

House Bill 251112 amended state law to give county courts the authority to dismiss a charge of failing to register a vehicle if three conditions are met.

Second, the owner registered the vehicle before the owner's first court date, and the owner would have to pay court costs.

So adopting this amendment would give similar authority to the Lafayette Municipal Court.

And finally, the last uh proposal is a local amendment regarding entry of default judgment.

And a default judgment can be entered when a defendant does not appear for court on certain traffic charges.

The defendant, I'm sorry, excuse me, the judge enters a guilty finding and imposes a fine.

A local amendment regarding entry of a default judgment was adopted off cycle by the city council in 2021, but was overlooked in the 2025 adoption of the model traffic code.

The Colorado Municipal Court rules allow a judge to issue a bench warrant for a defendant who does not appear at court.

In lieu of this bench warrant, the amendment would allow the judge to enter a default judgment.

The proposed amendment would allow a default judgment to be removed for excusable neglect within 35 days.

And the proposed amendment would reduce the time for a defendant to rectify a failure to appear to 35 days down from the previous 70 days, which had been influenced by COVID-related mailing concerns.

The default judgment would only apply to traffic infractions of four points or less, except for compulsory insurance, and six-point speeding tickets of not more than 24 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

Okay, and that concludes the presentation, and I will pass for questions.

Thank you so much.

Any questions from counsel on this?

Council Friendland.

That's all.

Thank you, Mayor.

Any other questions?

Mayor Protect.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think I was the only one here when we uh adopted the what was it called?

The default judgment.

Um, which I'm really glad we did.

I'm sorry I didn't get in the model code.

Did we was that enacted, even though we didn't put it in the model code, or did we?

We had our own local amendment that was adopted in 2021.

And then when we we brought the model traffic code update forward in 2025 to adopt the 2024, it wasn't carried forward.

So right now we have the model traffic code default judgment, which is a little bit different.

It doesn't have the removal for excusable neglect, which which is a benefit to people who forget to appear for a traffic ticket unintentionally.

So this gives them a little bit of wiggle room if they have um you know a good faith reason why they've missed it, like you just entered the wrong date in your calendar, um, that you can ask the judge to remove that and then still come in and possibly get a point reduction.

So when we did pass the vote vote, the local one, um, was that was a judge able to enact that?

Yes, this is this is the same exact language except moving from 70 days to remove the default judgment to 35.

Okay.

Um second question is, and this probably isn't for you.

Uh I'm just wondering.

When we do make it the paint is not a legitimate uh separator, um is the uh maybe this is for the our interim chief.

Like is uh something that will impact any areas in Lafayette that you know of where buses are dop.

So it will impact different areas uh for the better though.

Yep.

So this allows us to write those summonses for people that are coming towards the bus.

Um, whereas before we couldn't write that.

So up on baseline, for example, you'll have the painted lines up there, which before we couldn't write somebody if the bus stopped and somebody was going the opposite direction.

So this is a good thing.

This doesn't interfere with anything, it's a positive.

And so I know exactly what you're talking about.

That's what's in my head is that area.

Is this uniform through the county and other cities?

Is that something that drivers won't be surprised by that if we were like, no, can't do that?

Yes, it's a state law change under the House bill, they change that and remove the um the painted lines from the exception for boundaries or barriers in the middle of the road.

So the uh I didn't know it was a law excuse doesn't work.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

That's all the questions.

Any other questions?

No other questions.

I believe we have a motion.

I move to approve on first reading ordinance number two, series 2026, amending article two, chapter 115 of the code of ordinances regarding the model traffic code.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Any further discussion?

No further discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, say no.

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Uh that concludes regular business.

With that, we'll move on to staff reports, starting with our city attorney.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't have anything to report this evening.

Thank you so much.

Next, we'll move on to our city managers.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening.

First meeting of 2026.

Um, want to take a moment right now to um shout out kind of a scary event that occurred yesterday and just thank all of our first responders.

So the fire that was um just south of Dillon Road and west of 287 was started by an agricultural operation on that farm.

Um it was the fuels corn stacks, and so they had been harvested and very dry, as you're well aware.

So the fire burned about 35 acres, but no loss of life or property.

So great job to the team.

Uh thank you to the Lafayette team, particularly.

Um, and then I'm gonna have to read this because there were several others that showed up that I want to thank um for the support and the mutual aid.

So, in addition to Lafayette, we had Mountain View, Boulder Rural, Lewisville, North Metro, and Westminster Fire Departments.

Law enforcement, we had Lewisville, of course, our team, uh, Broomfield, Erie, Boulder County State Patrol, Parks and Wildlife, and then we had public information help from City of Boulder, Mountain View, and Colorado State Patrol in North Metro.

So this um was jumped on very quickly.

I believe the overall event was put out within 45 minutes of the initial call.

So there were a lot of um great decisions and obviously um lessons learned as well.

And I know that they will be doing a debrief on kind of how you know what could go better.

They always do that after our action report, but it is a good reminder for folks to um go to BoCO Alert and sign up and or look up your um information.

If you think you are already signed up and maybe you moved, I know that we've heard from some residents they didn't get alerted, so we always remind folks to make sure that information is accurate.

So that link is there.

Um also in that this week, um, all of our residents should be having a postcard being mailed to them and hit in their mailbox for the land use code community survey.

It um the QR is there, you can go on the website if you don't get that or you accidentally tossed it out with your other mails, all the information's there.

The survey is um closing mid-February, and then we will be reporting um some initial findings to council at the January 27th workshop.

And then as Mayor Tapia Baker already mentioned, we're very excited for our MLK day celebration, Monday, January 19th.

And then we will have some facility closures that day, including the library collective, city hall, and records, which we will be, of course, posting um more broadly to the community.

Looking ahead, you have a uh special meeting on your January 9th this Friday for Council Canada interviews, which we'll be discussing in a moment.

January 20th, um, you have the pleasure of renewing your one plant shop license.

That's according to code.

And also uh we will be recommending a ground lease amendment for the Lewisville Tower and then a resolution for Ionix, uh a PewDie and a SPAR, and then your January 27th workshop will be dedicated all towards um the land use code overview and update.

That's all I have tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Is the January 9th ending same time, 5:30?

Correct.

A couple questions.

Uh I just had one question about the there was a resident who asked about the evacuation maps.

Where are they?

Uh, if I understand correctly, uh that they are determined at the at the time of the event so that we don't have evacuation maps that are not a good choice uh that are standard is that yeah, um we'll have Chief Bradshaw provide more information around that.

The instant commander typically is the one that does it, and it's based upon what are called polygons, so they're large swaths and segments of it.

And so, you know, this was kind of the first time that we had um an event since the Marshall Fire, and so when I say there were some lessons learned, we understand that there are traffic frustrations, and when you close down, we had 42, 287, Dillon, all closed down.

Um, and this was an area where you had metronic hospitals in a large neighborhood.

And so understandably we just need to also do um reminders to residents about some safety tips when we do have evacuations, you know, take one car, not two, and so I think that there's some communication as these might become more frequent that we can just remind folks on some tips, but also um how to get out safely and expect traffic.

I believe that's another question.

Please go ahead, Councillor Jensen.

When you have the debrief on the incident and you come up with lessons learned, will that come back to us?

I think we could certainly provide counsel.

I just don't know that we've done it in recent past.

So yeah, I would I would have to do that.

And you've identified, you know, the communication and the traffic as issues, and I'd if anybody asks me a question, I'd love to be able to say to them, here's what we learned and what we're gonna do in the future, so we could just know what you've come up with.

Yeah, and what residents can expect, because again, we will not solve for the traffic issue when we have mass evacuations like that.

But what are some tips that they could do to help prevent it as well?

Thank you.

Just just to piggyback real quick if I can.

You know, I I did also hear some frustrations about the alerts.

Um, I live in that area and I did not receive an alert.

Um, so I appreciate the reminder to check uh your registration because I didn't know that was a thing I could do.

Um, but it there I can see some frustration of lessons learned.

Did we learn this lesson from the marshall fire about alerts?

I hope we did, and I hope we can continue to improve that uh alerting system.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will move on to council reports.

So we have three agenda items under council reports, so we'll start with those and then we'll move on to our individual reports.

Starting with agenda item.

Um, and what this is just for background, is uh council members of city council serve on regional um and intergovernmental organizations and boards uh across the state, but mostly across the region.

We also serve as liaisons to all the city boards within our city.

Uh and what we do at the when the new council is seated is we assign those liaison roles uh to members of our council.

Uh I will go ahead and actually read what we currently have as a draft that we will ideally uh finalize today.

But I will also say before we do, you're gonna hear of a couple vacancies.

That's obviously because we are not seven up here.

We're in the process of getting our seventh member of council.

So all those vacancies, ideally, once we have a full council, those will either go to the new counselor or we will kind of rework these and figure everything out once we have a new counselor.

Uh so I will just read through these and then we will discuss.

So the first is the Colorado Municipal League, the policy committee, and the primary will be Councilor Fridland, the alternate will be Councillor Jensen, CC4CA, the Colorado Communities for Climate Action, so our Mayor Pro Tem, the Consortium of Cities, uh again, Councilor Fridland, and the alternate will be Councillor Gianola.

Dr.

Cog, the Denver Regional Council of Governments, I will be the primary, and as of now, the alternate is vacant.

The Metro Mayor's Caucus, I will also uh take on that role.

The Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority will be Councillor Fridland and the alternate will be Councillor Gallegos.

The Northwest Mayors and Commissioners Coalition, the Primeir will be our mayor pro tem, and I will take on the role of alternate State Highway 7 coalition will be Councillor Jensen.

Uh State Highway 287 coalition will be Councilor Gallegos, and those are our intergovernmental uh organizations.

We will then move on to the city boards, commissions, and committees.

The Cultural Arts Board is currently vacant.

The Historic Preservation Commission will be Councillor Fridland, the Human Rights Board will be Councillor Jensen, uh the Library Board will be Councillor Gallegos.

The Mental Health and Human Services Grant Program Advisory Committee will be Councillor Jensen.

The older adults advisory board is currently vacant.

The open space advisory board will be Councillor Gianola.

The public art committee is vacant.

Sustainability and resilience advisory board will be Councilor Giannola.

Youth Advisory Board will stay with Councillor Gallegos.

And the few others, the employee pension and retirement board, I believe this is by uh charter that I will I will take on this one.

Uh the audit committee will be myself and councillor Giannola.

The Chamber of Commerce has decided to continue with a council of liaison, and I love that, so I will go ahead and take that one.

Our downtown development authority, our mayor Pro Tem serves on that one.

And I will just flag thank you so much to our um past Councillor Samson for the ill of for the flagging of the elected officials regional working group on homelessness.

Uh, we'll make sure to add that to this, but tonight we'll uh pass this a vacancy, and again, when we come back, we will we will see what if we have a full council, we'll see who I would love to volunteer for that.

If of course I don't know if you have to ask others too.

Everyone else okay with it.

I was gonna nominate you for that.

So in favor, then we'll go ahead and take that one.

Um great.

Any any discussion on this?

Anything, anything to share on this agenda item.

Amazing.

Well, I believe there's a motion in our packet.

I moved to accept the recommendation in our packet with the amendment of the whatever it's called on homelessness.

Elected officials working group on this elected officials working group on homelessness.

Second.

We have a motion.

We have a second.

Any further discussion?

No for the discussion.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Our second item under council reports is a consideration of planning commission appointment for term ending November 30th, 2029.

Uh, so a little bit of background on this one.

The regular I I want to say regular, but really it's the second time we've done it.

We our standardization project for boards of commissions had us um for the second time recruit everyone in the fall, and ideally have um all the vacancies filled in the fall.

However, when we recruited the first time for this, there was two open seats on the planning commission.

I believe only two applicants at the time, uh, and members of council uh through a vote decided to open up the planning commission application once more and hope to recruit more members.

So this is a second time around.

Uh and what I want to do here is um kind of defer to that uh interview committee and have them speak up and kind of talk to the rest of council and talk about the process, what they learned, what they took away, and then mostly to talk about the recommendations before council today.

So I'll open up the floor to the members of that committee.

Sure.

So we had seven fantastic candidates come through, and we had the pleasure of interviewing them all while we were interviewing.

We were also scoring them based on their interview, um, their preparation, their knowledge of this commission.

And all three of us came up with the same top two candidates.

So Brianna Lehman and Brian Wong both came in first and second across all three of us.

Yeah, and I'll I'll just add, you know, I I agree we have an excellent pool of candidates, um, including a former planning commissioner who I guess did not apply when the the vacancies came around in the fall.

Um, and so we did kind of evaluate and uh all the all the applicants pretty I think equivalently asking them all, you know, same identical questions, scoring them with the same rubric, um asking them kind of for the same kinds of inputs on their knowledge about you know the planning process, how it all works, um quasi judicial, um, you know, the kind of the rules that apply to the planning commission.

And for me personally, you know, the the there was a few candidates that seem to not quite rank as highly on some of the scoring rubric as others.

Um, and that included the the previous applicant um to the uh that was previously a planning commissioner, thus you know, not scoring as highly as some of the other applicants.

And I just wanted to put that on the record that you know there was no uh for me personally, I didn't know this uh this applicant, um, and so just was scoring based purely on the the interview process and the scoring that occurred um at the interview, um, and just you know wanted to put out there that you know that this wasn't uh you know, we we didn't recognize this person as you know being more or less qualified for having that, but it was purely just based on the uh the application and the discussion process.

Uh I'll just add exactly what my uh colleagues have said for the interview process.

Uh and we I think we if necessary for the rest of the council to elaborate on uh uh why we chose who we did.

I'll I'll go ahead and start if that's okay.

Is that number one?

I'm really thankful for all of the people who did answer this uh call for to serve more.

And one of our candidates, I think was even offering to serve on a second uh board and uh committee, which was just you know, once again solidified my understanding how much people love the city.

And uh I was looking comprehensively because of the challenges that we have moving forward.

How do we ensure we have the broadest capacity on the planning commission?

And obviously, uh well, not maybe not obviously, but the top two that we picked have lots of experience in their own ways, and the candidate that I thought Brie Layman uh brought to the table um an architectural and construct a landscape architect and construction background and an understanding of how water needs to be considered in the development of moving forward.

And you I don't know if you don't know me, that's my big concern is like uh I'm not gonna go into what's going on right now outside, but you can tell there's not the amount of water that we should have is not here.

Uh so I want somebody who understands how construction uh and development is associated with water projects, and I think we currently in our uh planning commission have history represented, we have architecture represented, we've got um a great deal of knowledge.

I'd just like to add that other peach with having construction, actually, someone who's licensed in the in the state with construction background, but uh obviously again, maybe not obviously, but I think the top two people that we picked are really outstanding.

So it was our original intention to present both candidates.

However, the majority ruled in favor of Brianna Lehman.

So I am okay moving forward with that recommendation.

Thank you so much.

Uh I would open it to the other two members of council just if you wanted to add any thoughts.

Sounds like the uh panel did a did some hard work, so thank you so much for that.

Thank you.

Yeah, I do want to thank the panel.

I know uh, especially our mayor Brotem now has served on two panels back to back.

So thank you so much for your service.

So it sounds like uh things are pretty figured out, so I'll take a motion.

I move uh to appoint looking for the motion language.

I move to appoint Brianna Lehman to the planning commission for a term commencing immediately and ending November 30th, 2029.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Do we have any further discussion?

No discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, say no.

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

And we move on to our final agenda item within our council reports, which is the consideration of applicants to interview for the city council vacancy appointment.

Um quick background.

Uh our former mayor and counselor JD Montgett um resigned, and he had about two years left on his four-year term.

So we are in the process of filling that vacancy on city council.

We had an application open, and we had six candidates originally apply, and we had one withdraw yesterday.

Yes, yesterday.

Um, and this one is just a general discussion between us on council.

Uh, we're obviously not choosing or deciding who we were gonna who we were gonna fill that vacancy with, just who we want to interview this Friday in our special meeting.

So I will open it up to council and just get general thoughts.

Uh, and I'm happy to start unless anyone feels like they want to go first.

Counselor Gianova.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I just want to thank all the applicants first uh for putting their names in the hat.

I think we had an excellent pool.

I I'm a little disappointed that someone pulled their name.

I thought they were an excellent candidate uh for the excellent applicant for the vacancy, um, but I understand you know, personal personal things happened.

Um for me personally, uh, you know, I I participated in the um election with a number of the applicants, and I think that you know, we've heard some public comments tonight about you know the timeliness of this vacancy and the relevance to appointing someone, taking the voters' uh recommendation into mind.

And you know, for me personally, I think you know, I definitely want to interview the uh applicants who were candidates uh during the fall session.

I you know, I got to know them a little bit, and you know, I think they you know, by both running for council in the first place, and then you know, applying for this vacancy have shown their commitment to the city.

Um, and so you know, I just want to start there.

So just um the three that ran for at least the three.

I'm I'm open to to further discussions, but I want to you know at least you know recognize those those folks who uh ran in the election and then have you know recommitted their uh commitment to the city by putting their names in as applicants for this vacancy.

Thank you so much.

Any other counselor that would like to speak on this councilor Fridland.

Um I would also add that I think um Mr.

Krupi, I think is how you say his last name, Michael.

Um he also has an interesting background.

Um so I would I would um advocate for uh including him in the interviews.

Um but I would say too that I think it might be worth our time to decide how many interviews we feel comfortable doing on a Friday, um, and sort of the implications of that, you know, how that sort of echoes too, but I would just also add that at this point.

Yeah, and just uh for council, those interviews are set to be roughly 30 minutes, and uh so those how last time how much time did we set in between?

Did we just go right back to back?

Okay, perfect.

So about 30 minutes for every person that we choose to interview.

Yeah, okay.

So I would like to move all five forward.

Originally I was thinking there was one candidate whose application didn't feel very complete, and that person has withdrawn.

So I would like to move all five forward.

Amazing.

Councillor Jensen, Mayor Pro Tem.

Any thoughts.

I I would just like to say I agree with both the witnesses who spoke and uh councillor Gianola that we did, and there are four of us up here who ran with the the four who were part of the campaign, and we did get to know them.

And I think there isn't among them anybody who isn't worthy of consideration, and so I have a good feeling about all of them.

Uh and I'm happy to also you know take what you said, David, into consideration.

So that would be five all together, right?

And that's everyone.

So that's you know what that feels like so.

That's also consistent with Councillor Giagos' recommendation as well.

And I know it's gonna be a long time, uh, a long night, and maybe we'd rather be doing something else on Friday night, but um, you know, stepping forward to run for counsel is a big deal, and to arbitrarily you know draw a line and say, you know, based on paper, uh it's very hard to say based on what you see on a piece of paper that somebody is not worthy, and I think we should at least talk to them.

So I'd be in favor of including everyone, even though it means a longer evening.

Thank you.

I'll turn it over to our mayor pro tem any thoughts.

Uh has everyone had a chance.

I I agree with everyone here.

I mean, if you put your hat in the ring, and I I don't think we're the ones to say like you can't interview, so I would strongly recommend bringing everyone forward, and we're just gonna have to suck it in.

So it sounds like we have a relative consensus.

All five sounds like what we're gonna do.

Council Ferdinand, did you want to add anything?

Uh just to clarify, I don't believe I think we only had three folks, right, who ran.

So we did there is one.

So certainly we can do all five.

Um, but I uh I'm not sure um based on paper, which fair enough.

Fair point, um, that um one of the candidates, uh, Mr.

Pistana, um is not as compelling uh to me in terms of uh experience.

Um however, has served a long time or lived a long time in Lafayette, um, which does uh hold some way.

So I guess if we're going to four, we might as well go to five.

So I'm I'm you know, I'm not gonna stand the way, but um yeah, just to just to be clear.

Okay.

Sounds like we all agree.

I'm also in agreements.

We should do all five, so I'll take a motion.

I move to invite all five city council candidates to candidate interviews.

Second we have a motion, we have a second.

Uh any further discussion?

No further discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, say no?

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

All five will be interviewed this Friday at 5 30 p.m.

Just to will we know the order has any of that been determined and will they be informed, you know, when they need to show up and all that good stuff.

I will either contact them in the morning or grab them after the meeting and sign them up for time slots, and that will be in the agenda that we post.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Is there a way to randomize that so that the folks who happen to be here don't get something better than those who are not here?

Sorry.

Happy to do that as well.

It feels fair to randomize that rather than sign someone up late.

I think so.

If you can, can you if it's possible, can you we can draw names out of a hat and let them council go with drawing names out of a hat?

That's cool.

Yeah, so if I remember correctly, we are appointing that person Friday.

Yes.

Okay.

They will be appointed.

Well, ideally, they would be appointed Friday if we all uh come consideration for appointment.

Yeah, we will we will try to appoint on Friday.

Um you mean if we don't agree, we will be that's right.

And if we appoint on Friday, just the January 20th meeting is when they will take their oath and join council, correct?

They have an option.

Um so last time, if you recall, you did it the next day um at City Hall.

So we will give them an option if they want to have more of a ceremonial with the judge here on the 20th, we're happy to do that, or if they just want to come in and city hall will do that as well.

But they will be effective again.

Should you appoint one on the ninth, that'll be their effective start date.

Right.

First meeting the 20th.

Amazing.

Okay, well, that I will turn over to council reports, and I'll start on this side.

Uh counselor Friday.

Uh, yeah, thank you so much.

Um I did want to bring up, I think a few of us maybe have been thinking about it, but I I did want to bring up the um um point from Mr.

Glenn on um an action that we uh could consider and could take um regarding RMMA and flight routes over our community, um, especially for the newer folks.

Um, you know, we've been we've been I mean we've been dealing with this talking about this for longer than I've been on council, certainly, uh probably longer than Tim's been on council as well.

Um and so um but this specific kind of series of events, I think um it it really started um June of of last year, where there was some informal kind of piloting uh of new routes um out of RMMA and into RMMA of um most concern for us is the routes in that uh is basically instructed to go directly down to 87 um at a certain um altitude.

Um uh it was piloted in June and then kind of officially said, okay, the pilot was successful, let's keep moving forward.

And I think in August, and then there was an official um uh notice um in November.

Uh we sent letters twice October and December.

Um and so we have already, you know, uh spoken up.

Um the ask now, as far as I understand it, and then I certainly look to my attorney's city attorney and or or uh resident city council uh legal person uh up here too.

Um to correct me if I get this wrong, but the request is a petition to review the official action of a notice to airmen in November.

Um it's really uh you know, kind of based in that that was an official action and should have gone through specific steps as a federal action according to the um administrative procedures act.

Did I get that right?

Sounds right.

Man, I should have gone to law school, shouldn't I?

Um and so um that's 60.

We basically what that says is 60 days uh for comment if a process had been followed.

Um a process for community engagement was not followed, and that's basically what we're saying is we feel like this was an official action, and um we we don't like it, you know.

Why didn't you why don't you go through the official steps you need to?

So that's the ask.

Um I'm very curious what our staff thinks about this, especially given the quick turnaround.

It's certainly challenging.

So we'd love to hear your your thoughts.

Um, and also obviously very much want to hear my fellow counselors of is this something that we want to um ask our staff to to do.

Well, the good news is it wouldn't be asking staff to do anything.

So as you guys know, you know, a special legal counsel appointed to these type of topics that was planning on coming and doing a workshop, obviously, um, once the needed council was seated.

So we already preemptively engaged with him earlier this week to kind of send um the example that had been provided and just get a better sense of um turnaround time mostly, um not necessarily effectiveness or not effectiveness.

And so um, according to them, and we have a meeting set up with them tomorrow, um, pending the discussion tonight.

If there's a majority of council that wants to pursue it, the lift at least for this ask is minimal.

Um, but again, I I don't I wouldn't speak to whether they feel like it's an effective use of time or not.

That'll be presented at a later date.

I think um more China for your February workshop.

So um, from a staffing lift and probably from a budget fairly minimal at this point in time.

This point.

Then that eliminates any concern that I had.

Um, and so I very strongly encourage us to um support this.

Councilor Gino.

I I've reviewed the materials that were provided by the public that you forwarded, Mayor.

And uh it seems that you know the ask here is a little bit about preservation of rights.

You know, if this is really an official action that was taken, you know, by an administrative agency and they didn't follow the rules.

We have a certain window to tell them, hey, you didn't you didn't do this right, and in order to preserve our rights, we've got to get in by this.

It sounds like the deadline is Friday.

That's correct.

Um, to be within the 60 days, and so you know, I don't think this is obligating us to any you know future uh work on this necessarily, but it's merely to preserve our ability to you know ask them to do the right thing.

Um, and you know, I think we should do it.

And because this is an ask of staff and of external legal counsel, I just want to check in with the other counselors, uh, just check what the consent sounds like on board, Mayor Pro Tem.

So, staff, you feel good about taking this on.

Yeah, yes, and should anything come out of our meeting tomorrow that I didn't foresee that would preclude us from doing anything, I will be sure to let counsel know immediately.

Great, thank you so much.

Back to Councilor Friendlit for the Shoffi reports.

Um I don't think I have anything other than to say that um our ski season is uh going very slowly.

Um a little bit of help this week, which is good, and um, you know, that's a bummer for a lot of us who want to get outside in the winter and go skiing, but certainly to um Mayor Pro Tem Barnes's point, it there are serious water impacts for us.

So this is this is uh it's it's worrisome.

Um and uh I don't know, when it's when it's 60 degrees in December and January, it just man, it doesn't feel right.

So I just want to say that out loud.

Um, and that's everything I have.

Thank you so much.

Councilor Gallegos.

So you've heard about our MLK event happening on January 19th from 10 to 12:30 a couple of times already.

For those who haven't attended before, I wanted to let everyone know that there's going to be breakfast, hot cocoa, kids' activities, live music, memorable speeches.

So please join us if you can at the rec center.

In addition to that, we are looking for teen volunteers to help us day of and as a part of the service squad.

So we actually have a service squad meeting coming up on Wednesday, January 14th, 6 to 8 in the lower level of the library, where you can come and support the youth advisory board in making this event happen.

So again, we're looking for teens, ages 14 to 17.

And if you'd like to RSVP, you can do that on the library website.

Thank you so much, Councilor Ginela.

Uh, first just want to say happy new year to everyone.

Uh, and a special thank you to our public safety team uh with regards to the event yesterday, uh, as someone who felt directly impacted and giving flashbacks of 2021's winter.

I mean, it seems like we're having a similar kind of winter event and winds and hot days, and um thank you to to the folks who are out there directing traffic and and directly fighting a fire.

I I really appreciate everyone's uh work there.

Uh also just want to say thank you to the members of the public who've uh submitted items today.

Appreciate all your input.

Thank you.

Mayor Proton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just wanted to uh follow on with Councillor Freeland's comments about the dryness and the lack of opportunity for us uh to ski or snowboard to slide down something icy.

The from a science standpoint, I don't know how many people have noticed, but there are trees that are starting to bud out.

Irises.

So this is not good, not in January.

Uh, and for anyone who grew up in Colorado, you know what happens to trees that have leafed out when we get the March snows cross our fingers, we do get those March snows, but it can do incredible damage to our trees, plus it throws off migratory patterns for uh all kinds of floor uh I guess it's fauna, not the floor.

So it's I'm deeply concerned.

And the temperatures, the winds that we're seeing, the fires, the fire, I'm really not happy about what's happening.

That's not gonna change anything.

But uh that's something I just want everyone to take note.

Like this is unusual.

Um it just makes me want to ensure all my colleagues here are aware of this this time period right now.

This is going to establish or could set up what the rest of the spring in the the year looks like potentially.

Um typically we do get the water that we need.

The problem is that it if it comes too fast on a warm day, we it's not good for us.

It's hard for us to recover that to put it in through the reservoir.

So we need snow to fall, and it needs to be cold.

I'm gonna leave it with that.

And also, I just wanted to ask if and I I don't want to throw anyone under the bus here, but the um acknowledgement, the indigenous people's uh acknowledgement area that we have off on Rothman open space.

The signage is obliterated because of sunlight because that's what it does to signs.

Um I just wanted to mention that if it's not if it's not on our schedule to to take care of that.

Um that would be great if we could have that in the mix to uh remedy the condition of that sign as a matter of respect.

And uh yes, I can't say enough about the MLK day celebration.

Um I spoke last year, but I might have spoken too long, so I will defer to uh someone who's not as long-winded as I am uh for the the speeches because I know that we have lots of great people who can speak uh to that event.

And that's all I have.

Thank you so much, Councillor Jensen.

Well, I've been out of the country since our last meeting, so I'm just back in the swing, so I don't really have anything to report.

Thank you.

Um one thing to report from me, and it's just to echo uh what has already been said here before, which is thank you so much to our staff and to the response yesterday.

Um I was I I I received a call from somebody in the Medtronic building before we had heard anything in communications before.

I think before a lot of people heard, and I immediately got in talk contact with our city manager, and there was already an emergency response going, and it was just so quick, so efficient, and so good.

And uh, I don't think anyone knows better than Boulder County just how quickly these things can go badly.

Uh especially as our Mayor Pratem said, and these in this climate, things are just not good, and these things can get scary very, very quickly.

So just again, thank you so much to our city staff for the incredible response yesterday.

Um, and with that, I move to adjourn to executive session pursuant to Colorado Rise Statute Section 24-6-402 for EI for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators with respect to existing potential agreements between the city of Lafayette and the Boulder County Housing Authority pertaining the future development of phases two and three of the Willoughby Corner affordable housing project and the approved Willoughby Corner final planned unit development plan.

Do I have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor?

Anyone opposed?

No one opposed.

Uh the city council will now adjourn to executive sessions and will not return to an open meeting.

The time now is 7.19 p.m.

Thank you.