The Pledge of Allegiance.

Beck, can we please get a roll call?

Mayor Tapia Vega?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes.

Good evening.

Councilor Friedland.

Here.

Councilor Gallegos.

Good evening.

Councilor Gianola.

Here.

And Councilor Jensen.

Here.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

We are of course here to ideally hopefully um appoint the seventh member of this council and fill the vacancy that was uh left with the resignation of our former mayor, uh JD Mount Get.

Now the only thing I would like to let uh the public know is we're gonna do things a little differently tonight, whereas regularly the first um item of business is public input.

We're gonna move that back just ever so slightly.

So we will start tonight with the four candidate interviews, and then we will have public input.

So just again to reiterate, we will have the opportunity for public input, but it will happen after uh the candidate interviews.

So with that, we write this to things that's not just any more time.

I don't know why I have so many.

What would you prefer we call it?

Either one as long as you call me for dinner.

But Mike is good.

Well, first and foremost, thank you for being here.

Uh thank you for uh and I think I speak on behalf of all of council.

Thank you for putting your name in the hat and being your willingness to serve the city of Lafayette.

Uh this interview will run around 30 minutes.

Okay.

Uh the way it'll work is each member of council will ask you one question.

So thirty minutes divided by six questions.

You have roughly five minutes for each question if you'd like.

So be as thorough as you'd like, take the time you need.

And if there is time at the end, we will come back.

And you can ask questions of council.

So with that, we'll get started, and I'll go ahead and start us off with the first question.

So in your own words, explain the role of city council in governing the city and describe the qualifications, experiences, or perspectives you bring that make you well suited to serve as a city council member.

Well, as I understand it, um look under the org chart of the city as well as democracy in general.

You have the people up top, the we the people of America, um, or in this case the city of Lafayette, uh, and then they they elect the city council, the city council kind of serves at the at the desire of the people.

Um city manager is under that, city staff, uh, and that the city council is responsible for for ensuring that number one, the the people have direct oversight um over the management of their city.

Um and then secondly, to uh to approve um all matters related to uh the uh code regulations, um, I mean anything, anything that that kind of requires the budget.

No, they're the they're the stamp of approval to provide the uh the the democratic rule of the people over the city.

Um as per my qualifications, um I don't know that anybody on planet earth um is qualified uh to be a leader in such a capacity.

Um but I think that democracy runs best when the people who are taking part in democracy are willing to step up to the plate and at the very least uh try their best, as all of you have done.

Um and I'm deeply grateful that there are people like you out there who are who are willing to do that.

Um I kind of started out my journey.

Um I mean, I've been I've been in leadership roles since I was 22 uh in the Navy.

Um my first uh duty station, my first assignment in the Navy was as a um hospital corpsman taking care of elderly uh terminal cancer patients.

It was a it was a rough time at 21 years old.

Um but it taught me humility, compassion, and empathy, um, and just a deep understanding uh and respect for the people who've come before us.

Um I mean there's there's a saying in science uh on the shoulders of giants, we stand tall, um, and many of those people that I had the honor of taking care of uh at Naval Hospital and the Naval Hospital in Washington, DC.

Um were those were were giants such as that.

I mean, I mean individuals who stood up and volunteered for for World War II for Korea for Vietnam or just to serve in general or their family members.

Um from there uh went on as a as a field medicine corps.

Um I got to see our country's um foreign policy in some of the most unfortunate ways, uh, as well as witness um some some real heroism bravery and and meet some amazing people on both sides, some of whom were were actually like detainees from from fighting for for the their country in Iraq.

Um it's kind of there that I started questioning the narrative of democracy in general, um, and kind of what we're well.

There's something that I saw for the first time in Iraq that I haven't been able to unsee when it comes to leadership in general.

Um, and that was that the people on the ground oftentimes knew exactly what needed to be.

They knew what was happening, and oftentimes they had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done.

Um whereas the farther the more layers you go up and leadership, uh, the less and less that signal, that sort of reality gets gets permeated up.

Um perfect example of this.

Um, I mean, when I was over there, uh the big push was was offloading some of the the security responsibilities to Iraqi security forces and Iraqi police.

And so there's this big push to recruit uh local members in order to serve in the Iraqi military and police.

Um that was touted if you read the the situation report for Anbar province.

Um they talk about the great success they've had in bringing in individuals, and yet the people on the ground, especially the medics, we'd see detainees coming in who were detained by these security forces who were strung upside down and had their feet whipped with electrical cables because we weren't doing the due diligence of making sure that the people that we were recruiting, we were so focused on the objective of of just recruiting people that we weren't making sure that those people that we recruited were actually good people.

Uh and that kind of demonstrated to me firsthand the cost of what happens when a democratically elected leader and the bureaucracy that falls under them is unaware of the reality that's taking place on the ground.

Um from there, um Okinawa Japan.

Uh I had the the privilege and kind of a random happenstance moment of serving on the emergency operations committee for Naval Hospital Okinawa during the Tohoku um uh tsunami and uh an earthquake um in on March 11th, uh that was 2011 2011, um, and or 2012, sorry.

And um, I mean I eye-opening to kind of be part, it was the first time I was in the room with uh with the with the big people.

Um got to see some of the decisions being made, got to got to assist in communications and staging uh disaster relief supply supplies and see how when things were working, um, what a a organized and powerful force of government um or the force of good that a government could be.

Um after that, uh I mean I had two kids of the way uh at that point, um went into software engineering uh master's degree in uh in computer science from CU to two classes shy at a family emergency and wasn't able to finish it, so I can't really claim the full master's degree.

Um but it was it it's I guess the the point is is I've I've been all over, but I've been all over from a ground level perspective.

Like my entire experience is grassroots.

Um I started out in the bottom and I've slowly been working my way up.

I arrived in Lafayette 10 years ago, um very little money, uh rented five different places in five different years for five years.

Um got to see what it's like uh in in Boulder County when you don't have a lot of money.

Um, and some of the services that Boulder County offers is really incredible.

Um and and a lot of some services I think are lacking.

Uh and so what qualifies me to be up here?

Um, I mean, I would point the highest qualification is the the 3,100 people who voted for me in the in the last election, people that I talked to.

Um now with that being said, I'm a believer in in democracy.

Um, and I would like to formerly endorse uh Kyle uh for this for this role.

Um he he clearly earned uh a significant majority more votes um than I did, um and he is an all-around outstanding person.

If for some reason um the force moved in mysterious ways and he's not able to make it tonight and just it gets disqualified, I'm happy to step up to the plate, but I do believe that he's earned it.

Um so thank you.

Thank you.

Um thank you for your service.

And thank you for yours as well.

I do have the next question.

Uh and as for clarification, if this doesn't resonate with you, uh what does the notion of climate resilience mean to you when considering the city of Lafayette's entire past, the present, and the future?

To answer candidly, um that that strikes me as one of the many buzzwords um that politicians throw around uh to talk about the change that they're not actually doing.

Um I think that that climate resilience has an actual meaning, and that is being prepared for I mean the eventuality of I mean, one of these winters, I mean, I mean, God willing, we will we will get rain and snow sometime in the spring and and our water resources will be replenished.

Um but if that doesn't happen, are we in a situation, and you probably know this better than I do, but are we in a situation to thrive for the next year?

Um, or are we gonna seriously have to think about tightening our belts and and buckling down for a very unpleasant uh drought?

Um I mean, climate resilience in the face of uh of the mega drought that we're under for the past um two decades.

Um I mean, I think it's really about responsible management of our resources, making sure that we don't grow past our ability to um to provide uh I mean, water, I think is one of the one of the most pressing issues that we have here in Lafayette and along the front range.

Um I mean, it's you look at the water resources that we have.

Some of those resources, um, I mean, the watering lawns is a fantastic example of something that in the middle of a really bad drought, just stop doing that.

California has a great example of like, hey, you can turn off the turn off the faucets, you can you can take shorter showers.

What you can't do if you have a lot of people there is deprive the people of the water that they need in order to survive.

And so that places a really hard limit on um how big we can grow and still be responsible about managing our resources.

Um and I hope that there are people such as yourself who are really taking that into account in their in their governing decisions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm next.

Excellent.

Question for me.

Um what is your position on rezoning land in the city to allow for higher density housing?

And how would you want to address housing in transit in our new land use code?

Transit is one of those interesting things that I mean you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force him to drink.

And I think that the people have pretty pretty loudly spoken so far.

I mean, unless some significantly significant changes are made um to RTD in general and the bus system and kind of safety and other concerns.

Um people don't want to take it.

Um and so I know that that there's there's kind of a tendency in positions of of leadership.

And I've seen this in other communities as well, where instead of incentivizing the correct choice, there's a tendency to deincentivize or I guess punish those who are taking make it more difficult to take automobiles.

And the challenge with that is that a lot of the people who I mean that's fantastic for people who who you know have I mean I have a pretty flexible work schedule.

I can I can afford to get to work.

Nobody's gonna yell at me or fire me if I'm arrive at work five minutes late.

I can sit in the car with a podcast going and uh traffic's there, I don't I don't really mind.

Um but there are a lot of people who don't have that luxury who who have to be at work at a certain time.

And when we when we focus on on sculpting traffic patterns, especially sculpting traffic patterns in favor of a mode of transportation that a lot of people don't actually want to take, what you end up doing is you force the the less fortunate individuals or the less flexible individuals um to to take the bus, um which I guess is a win.

Um but it allows the those who with with more beings um to to experience more freedoms.

Um and I think we have a lot of that in America right now.

Of I mean, shoot, we have like the the the guy who I forget his name, but the guy who comes up here um each each meeting and talks about the airplanes.

Um, what better example is there of wealth privilege than the people who get to fly over the heads of everybody else?

Um and yeah, so transportation.

What was the other component of that question?

You want me to read again?

Uh yes, please.

I'll I'll pull an adaptable.

What is your position on rezoning land in the city to allow for higher density housing?

And how would you want to address housing and transit in the new land use code?

So rezoning um for housing density, I think that has to be responsibly done, and I understand that responsibility responsibly is another one of those buzzwords that people love to throw around, but that actually has meaning.

Um I don't think that the responsible course of action is to pave over yet another corner of paradise in favor of parking lots and buildings.

Um I'm I'm very very much opposed to that, uh, as I think I've came off from the forums and when I talked to people.

Um I am, however, rezoning like low density housing.

Um I'm probably one of the only like pro environment people who would who would we could we could definitely do like a couple buildings in town, especially in the downtown region or along the 287 corridor, um where we just just discount the uh the height limit and and put in a not a skyscraper, obviously, but but a taller building, I mean Lafayette Towers, something like that.

Um, but we can do that in a way that that builds on top of the infrastructure or the builds on top of the things that we've already paved over instead of instead of detracting more and more um uh wildlife habitat.

If you you can go on Google and you can look at at like the the 20-year satellite history of the city of Lafayette um and put it in a time lapse, and it is incredible to see how much of our natural ecosystem has been lost.

Um, and I think that's a true tragedy.

And that but that that also I mean you have to balance that with the needs of people.

Um people do need jobs, people need a place to live.

Um, however, I mean, I I think that that even talking about that, especially the way Lafayette has grown, is a little bit disingenuous because a lot of the new housing housing developments that I've seen go up are single-family homes, like two to three thousand square foot plus.

I mean, these are like mansions going up all over the front range by people who claim to be environmentalists uh or living in by people who claim to be environmentalists.

Um I mean, I'm I mean, I I do just find in a 1400 square foot house, and it's cozy and nice, and I would like to see more of that, more tiny houses, more of like smaller apartments, ADUs.

Um, and then I think a few pockets of of high density housing along transportation corridors where it makes sense.

Thank you.

Thanks.

What do you believe is the most important issue facing Lafayette's future?

And what do you think Lafayette should be doing about this issue?

Do I have to only pick one?

Yeah, one the most important thing.

Okay.

Um I mean, I already spoke about water.

I mean, obviously there's there's few things more important to human survival than water, however, that's already been spoken for.

Um on more of an abstract level, um, I think that the problem facing Lafayette is the problem facing America and probably the world at large right now.

And that is a breakdown in not only the trust, but also the functioning of democracy in general.

That we are, I mean, I'm not I'm not gonna say the sky is falling or anything like that, but we are in bad shape right now.

Um and what's really interesting, I've I've spent the last two years, over the last two years I've done a lot of of road trips uh across America and I've tried to stop in random little towns and talk to as many people as I can.

Um as well as the the during the city council run the opportunity to just just knock on random strangers' doors and be like, hey, what are your thoughts on the city?

Um but yeah, the one thing that everybody can agree on, whether they're in the middle of of like the MAGA South or in Boulder County or or in like the suburbs of Seattle, um, is that we're really broken right now, and that we're not talking with each other, we're talking past each other, like each side.

I mean, we're focusing on this this red versus blue game, um, instead of instead of coming together and saying, like, I disagree with you, you disagree with me.

Let's start there and let's identify the points that we disagree on, and let's let's like focus on the point, let's figure out what we agree on and and start working towards that.

Um, and sometimes it's as simple as just I mean, you go into the the deep south, and you're you find some some random guy's house with with like a make America Great Again flag in his front yard, and Trump was right about everything, signs all over the place.

Um you talk to him about the environmental environment, and he'll he'll curse up a storm about um about environmentalists and everything.

But if you talk about like his own backyard and how he or she um respects or how they feel about about like their natural habitat being being paved over or their like ecosystems being destroyed, um they get pretty defensive about that.

I think that that people do people by their nature by by the by extension of our of our birth out of nature, um feel a connection there.

Like we want to be around animals, we want to see birds and flowers and and um and just be feel like we're a part of the ecosystem.

And I mean, I I think you you actually have if you if you ignore the political slogans, if you put aside the political slogans and the way the the media and our social media echo chambers and our politicians kind of kind of spin it in in words that divide us, um there are a lot of people, there is a lot of agreement there about about a huge, huge range of issues, and poll after poll shows that I mean even something as contentious as gun control, like most people right and left think there should be some pretty common sense uh uh measures taken to to restrict the ownership of guns or to keep our kids safe in schools.

Um and the fact that that even with this consensus, um we still are not doing anything about it.

To me, that says that our system's broken.

Um and I'm a little bit um I mean I to me I think that that that it's broken because people profit off of it continuing to be broken.

Like that that's kind of my cynical take on it, is that there's there are there are individuals in our society, or I'm gonna say above our society, uh, who are raking in billions of dollars off of other people's pain and misfortune.

Um and if there is a if there is one calling of government, um it is to that that I think we all can agree on, it is to preserve everybody's inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from oppressive governments as well as oppressive capitalists.

That was a long-winded question.

Short answer, um uh uh make our democracy work.

Talk to your neighbors.

All right, next question for you.

If you had a family member visiting Lafayette for the first time, which local spots or activities would you take them to and why I mean I'm not I'm a huge fan of Wanaka Lake and Cole Creek.

I mean, if they were if they were a hiker uh or or a walker in general or anybody who who likes bird bird watching anything, um, any of our open space.

Um a business perspective, uh I think that the coolest store, and I I there's there's two two, I mean I don't mean to play favorites here, but uh like the two, my two favorite stores that we have in Lafayette are uh are the the Little Herbal Apothecary.

Um and and uh Christopher Krishna groceries, uh, which is is such a fantastic you can get stuff there that you can't get anywhere else.

I mean, even the even the big stores um and the people there are fantastic.

It's it's in both of those places, and that's that's kind of like what I love about small business in general.

Um other than that, the people, man, like we have such good people here.

I mean, that that's kind of the big draw of Lafayette is just the community that we have.

Um I mean, you walk around town, and especially after knocking on on a couple thousand doors, um, I can adapt they're they're amazing.

Uh just just the fact that you can you can walk around Monica Lake or like my family goes running there a lot together.

Um people say hi to each other, um, people smile.

I mean, that would be kind of the thing that I I would I would want to show off more than anything else.

Thank you.

Final one from me.

Excellent.

Um best of last, right?

Well, I don't know.

Um so we've got a lot of strategic plans the city does.

Yes.

Um so not including the comprehensive plan.

Which plan do you find the most kind of interesting to you?

And how do you think these plans generally should inform city council and making decisions?

This is going back a little bit in time.

This is from 2011, and it's it's and it it interests me.

I find it it's a fascinating plan to me in a in a uh not a good way.

Um, and that is the the Lura Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority Um plan, the plan that's available on the website from 2011.

Um if you are at all familiar with uh patterns of gentrification, there's a fantastic book by somebody whose name I don't know, uh named How to Kill a City.

Um and it follows gentrification patterns, New Orleans, um uh San Francisco, uh Detroit and New York.

Um and what's truly amazing about it is is you read through the Lura plan from 2011, and it is a textbook example of a outside consultancy coming in and attempting to gentrify uh the downtown area.

I mean, they have advice on where to put shops and how to how to like structure there's one line in there specifically um says something about it's it's it like the court it's not talking about the public road corridor and how like it needs to be revamped and like there's the presence of like empty stores and uh and affordable housing, and that these are kind of blights that need to be need to be like and the pawn shop and the like the pawn shop, like empty stores and affordable housing on public road are listed listed as things that would need to be fixed in order to make Lafayette a more attractive place for business.

Um and that's BS.

Like that's nonsense.

Like our town can have affordable housing in our main drag.

Like, why do you need to keep the poor people all off in the in the in the dark little corners so we don't have to look at them?

Um and uh I mean, yeah, that was that was probably that's probably my my favorite just because it it makes me mad, and and sometimes that feels good because it gives you something to like like challenge against.

Um but uh I mean I think and and because we actually have I think implemented some of that plan, some of those, some of the plans laid out in the Lura plan.

Um and I mean if you look at any time we talk about small business and kind of developing our our small business community here, almost any example that people come up with or anything that we do we try to, it's all consumptive.

Um it's all shopping and toys and entertainment and and I mean like I'm I'm a little bit tired of being entertained.

Like if we have we have no shortage of entertainment in society, and it's not making anybody any happier.

Let's let's do something real.

Like let's get out and build a park together.

Let's paint the Starkey building together.

Like let's let's build a community that reflects our values instead of what an outside consultancy thinks is the cookie cutter like big box version of what a town should look like.

Um and I don't think I mean that's not even something that starts in city council or city staff or city government.

That's something that that neighbors can go together can come together and build.

Um and just to just to kind of tout my neighbors on this.

I live on South Carolina Avenue, and I have I've lived in in five, this is my sixth house in Lafayette, the other five were rentals.

This is the best little community of people.

Like we take care of each other, like we're out there like shoveling snow together when we know all the elderly people on our block, and we're all out there like making sure their driveways are clean and the way that nobody is gonna slip.

Um like we know people's vacation schedule, we take care of each other's pets, um, and we work on gardening projects together.

And that's what a city can be.

Like, that is what we could do that, and there's nothing stopping us from doing that on a citywide scale.

Um, and I mean, one of the one of the reasons why I wanted to run for city council in the first place was just to bring that sort of mentality, that perspective, um, to the city council.

Like, what can city council do not only to uh to to like allow this to make sure that our code and our regulations are are allowing this, but also just to encourage it to actually I mean, rather than like it would be so cool if city council like every couple months, like you pick a block and do like a city council block party, and you guys all come out and and I mean bring and I understand there are regulations around like how you have to have it has to be open to everyone, everybody has to be able to hear.

You can bring like audio like shoot with a phone right now.

Um I can get you up on a YouTube channel on your YouTube channel and then cast all of this, like like live and and like get people engaged, like get people out of their houses, get people engaged in the the management of their city.

Um and I mean get like hear the the little stuff.

The the the sort of stuff that people notice in their in their neighborhood that is not important enough for them to take time off on a Tuesday night in order to come in here and work through all of their stage fight jitters in order to come up in front of council and talk to you about.

I mean, there's there's like a couple of two by fours missing on the bridge on um Emma Street, going over there like right on the bike lane that goes on the north in the north bike lane going across the bridge.

There's a couple two by fours missing between the the and it's just one of the one of the guys who lived in that area when I was knocking on his door.

He was like, it's been there for years and nobody's fixed it.

Another guy was like, There's these weeds that that grow in this little island there.

Um I have to like hassle, I have to call the city staff like three times in order to get it taken care of.

If you guys were like out in the community and you set up like a solo stove, a little campfire in the middle of the road to have cookout or something, like people could come directly to you and be like, hey, there's this pothole here that's never fixed.

You'd be like, okay, I'll talk to city staff about that.

Um I think that would just be a fantastic idea.

Uh and just just community building in general.

Um I don't know if I answered your question, but it was a good question nonetheless.

Thank you.

Good answer.

Thank you, Michael.

We want to be respectful all the time, so unfortunately, you have time.

Uh sorry about that.

Appreciate your time though.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Up next, we will have Rob Glenn.

I think he's in the special holding room.

Hey Rob, how's it going?

Hey.

So real quick, first and foremost, thank you for for meeting with us.

And I'm gonna say this for every single person who comes up.

But on behalf of council, just thank you for putting your name in the hat and being willing to serve the city of Lafayette.

We truly appreciate it.

Uh we'll have about 30 minutes, and there's gonna be six questions, one question from each of us.

So if you want to do quick math on that, that's about five minutes per question if you're keeping if you're keeping score, but be as thorough as you'd like.

And I'll go ahead and get us right into the first question.

In your own words, explain the role of city council in governing the city and describe what qualifications, experiences, or perspectives you bring that make you well suited to serve as a city council member.

Writing it down.

So role of city council, I heard what was, and then there's an in-between, and then there was qualifications.

What else you said?

Uh, in your own words, explain the role of city council in governing the city and describe what qualifications, experiences, or perspectives you bring that make you well suited to serve as a city council member.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Uh I'll start off by first off saying thank you for having me today and allowing me through this application process to interview today.

Really appreciate y'all's time on a Friday night.

Um, and uh just look forward to this process.

Um first thing the role of city council, uh, the number one thing I would put out there is being the voice of the city.

Um each and every one of y'all were uh elected uh recently or previously to uh your terms in council, and uh the key point is yeah, just listening.

I mean, I was so I guess prior term is it's been so enjoyable since I decided to run for city council in August, and even like the ups and downs here in the things people love and hearing more of what people want fixed, like I enjoy every part of that, and and getting the to be that that ear and then voice of expression to uh with the council and and to the city and working with staff and et cetera, to help with needs.

Um and then with that, it it's crucial that we go into the role of city council, like the part of working with city staff, um, because they're here on the day to day.

Um, I mean, the role never ends being on council and mayor and mayor pro tem, etc.

But um, the people who are here doing the grind day in and day out throughout the week is as the people that have been hired to run the the city through administration and the different departments.

Um then through that it's it's also taking the information one looking at the budget.

Um we all want um the city has these amazing services, and there's always more that people want, but that's all afforded through smart development and and revenue and and small businesses and helping them be here and also managing that budget and understanding what taxes are coming in from sales tax and property tax, etc.

Um, to how it all evens out uh to afford all the different services and make sure we have the needs to meet our citizens' needs.

Uh qualifications and perspectives around where I feel on that is um you'll all had an opportunity to look at my resume, but I was in operations um corporately and franchise uh in the oil change industry for over 12 to 15 years.

I started with them actually as a technician changing oil in high school uh and and had that opportunity of being in a company and getting to work my way up.

And um, my final title in a company was regional manager, but I had the opportunity to bring in a brand that I loved so much to Colorado at the time when I was in that industry, and and knowing directly on that franchise side, going from corporate to franchise that development piece and what it took at that time.

I was director of ops when when that, and I'm relating all this because it circles back to I mean, we had procurement, we had budgets, we had everything you could think of and the manageability of understanding those PLs and and being smart with it.

Uh something I always relate in that world was in the corporate world, you always had individuals that the first thing wanted to do is always cut the lower end of a budget PL on the labor.

But I was always sales don't happen, and and growth doesn't happen without that labor to achieve success.

Um, so I throw all that together because I think y'all have a major part of approving the budget uh every year, which y'all just did a lot of work in the last several months for people who were on council.

Um understanding that, and then I also understand what it takes to open up a business in Colorado.

And we did that in a tougher time than ever.

I did that during COVID.

Um, and having employees hiring, finding the procurement of the the items we needed and the struggles.

So it's a perspective that isn't um it's a different field than everybody is currently represented on council, and I think that is something to take into consideration.

Um, I know we had a recent election, and I know where I landed in there, and and totally respect and understand how things went went there and accept all that, but I still feel there's an area of my expertise, and then in the last two years, um, I went into the real estate world and have a different side of perspective and qualification to bring when we talk about adding housing in Lafayette.

And I actually just yesterday had somebody come to me and they were looking for housing, and they're about their 64 and bound to be 65, and they're like, what do we have for housing in in Lafayette and senior living and all that?

And I was able to talk about will it be corner, but there's still tons of opportunities, like of understanding the market and is that affordable housing and where it lands.

Uh that expertise of my day-to-day job right now and knowing where the trends are in housing and buying and renting, because I also do property management, um, and all the people I work with when it comes time to property management, is like about we want to make sure people feel safe, they can reach us and communicate.

So that just kind of that business aspect of my my life, and I've always kind of been in leadership roles where um I've always just been super thoughtful of process.

If somebody brings something to light of an issue, um I've always been in no matter what tier I ever was, I always wanted to hear the people who had to do the day than day of that job and understand how this affects them.

Is this the best answer for you?

Wanting that buy-in and of any change that was ever made.

Um, and knowing, and I love the city when we talk about adding a pocket park, or you're talking about the recent upcoming um capital expenditures, the time.

I mean, it does slow things down at times, but the time that's taken to ask the feedback and making sure that we're getting that buy-in, or y'all are getting that buy-in before making that final decision on how you spend those funds and where it goes.

Um, and I love the the ability I've gotten to watch y'all all since the beginning of August and current uh our past council and current council and just the collaboration you all have, and I love that aspect of getting to bounce ideas off of each other and watch everybody work, and I think there's a layer of circling and bringing it all back that everything I just talked about and experience that I could bring to the table and and assist and help uh lead in the city with y'all.

Thank you.

Uh got the next question.

Good to see you, Rob.

Thank you.

Um what does the notion of climate resilience mean to you when considering the city of Lafayette's entire past, the present, and the future notion of client re climate resilience?

What was the other word after that?

Um, what does that mean to you when considering the city of Lafayette's past, present, and future?

Past present and future, no client present.

Um I mean, it's it's super crucial.

I mean, we've been going through it.

Um I'll reference you you brought up the other night about I mean, one, there's the biggest winter activity in Colorado and skiing is practically it's existent, but it's it's not great.

And but that's a direct reflection.

I referenced that because it's like I was so happy to actually see the snow stick last night.

Because originally when you went to bed, you're like, are we gonna have snow overnight?

And I learned so much actually recently.

Um, I got to go to the sleepy hollow reservoir, which we have some ownership in, and took a class.

Actually, that's another cool thing you talk about qualification.

Um, one of the C I need 24 hours of CE every three years, and one of them was on water law, and I learned so much the importance of well, one, we did a tour and then spent an extra two hours just on how that all works with water rights and all that, and when we talk about the biggest thing that affects us directly in climate is is water.

Um because nature is not always giving it to us as much as we need, and how are we gonna keep that for the long haul?

And how does that go into development when we think about the future um and the importance of making sure where is somebody getting water to be able to put in that development?

Um, but it's a scary thing, like we're seeing it directly in this this we're in January, and we've had very little rain collection and moisture collection.

Um is actually pretty cool, just quick little rant, but it talks about how the way the snow melts and the water reclamation and how it kind of repurposes and reuses itself when we do have enough snow in the winter time, and how that can fund um our important agriculture in Colorado, which is important too.

Um, there's other areas when you talk about past, present, and future, it's being conscious and codes and I mean, I know they focused on the land use code update first, but there's also still codes and and working with the comprehensive plan and so on, and um all the things that are out there directing, which is beautiful to see, like there's not a change being made without taking the direction of all the work y'all put into how you want the future of the the city to work.

I mean, I know example from a code perspective about the class four shingles and uh with hail damage, and we talk about replacement and what that does uh for the long-term effect.

Um, so it's extremely important and means a lot to me.

Um, but also circling back to what we said earlier.

Um, I got to watch in when they were doing at the planning commission for the approval of the addition at uh at um the Red Queen.

Um they were talking about they were preparing situation for the ability to have um solar panels, but it wasn't required yet.

But it's also that consciousness where they were thinking about the future when we can afford this, and how do we add that?

I think that's crucial when we think about things we put into code, whether it be for residential or commercial, uh, that were helping elevate and bring our community into that, uh, those standards, but also being conscious of what that costs is and what can be the biggest impact.

Um where things went really rough and wrong, where we talk about is the marshall fire, which is a scary climate thing, and we're this year seeing more.

I came from Louisiana where there was hurricanes, and I'm like, I get away from that to come to fires, and I love being here, but it it evacuations and things I know owed too well, and I hope we don't have to deal with enough here.

Communication of evacuations.

I mean, we were doing hurricane drills in the well change industry for shops.

It was crazy the amount in hurricane season, we're doing that almost weekly, making them do all these preparedness.

So I know what it takes for emergency situations, by the way.

I went through Hurricane Katrina and I've been in businesses during hurricanes.

Uh it's it's very different enemy uh with fire and Mother Nature, but it's still very much emergency response, and it's scary that anybody can be put in fear or harm or loss.

But circling back to the Marshall Fire, it affected a lot of crazy insurance claims when you look at how codes were put in, when they were up to date, what insurance people have.

And if any this is recorded and people are listening, I hope they check their insurance policy.

So if something does happen in the near future, which we hope doesn't, they're prepared for that.

Um, but you got to be conscious of those those changes and how it affects if something did happen, a disaster, and would somebody have coverage and stuff.

So there's a lot to it.

Hopefully, that covers uh the past, present, and future.

But the biggest thing for the future is making sure we're focused on how we can make our impact on this earth for the long run and make it sustainable for the people behind us, um with as much affordability as possible.

Thanks, Rob.

Thank you.

Um, next question for you.

What is your position on rezoning land in the city to allow for higher density housing?

And how would you want to address housing and transit in our new land use code?

Zoning for higher density, you said Adam.

Yeah, I'll read it again.

What is your position on rezoning land in the city to allow for higher density housing?

And how would you want to address housing and transit in our new land use code?

Well, one, I look forward to the workshop update y'all have at the end of this month, whether I am on counselor or not.

Uh, I look forward to attending that because I've gotten to during my time um got to go to a lot of different activities around the land use code update.

Um, when we talk about higher density, um it is um it is a smart approach when done right.

I mean, here's here's input when we talk about um because I know there's different layers of that, like adding dwelling units in old town or allowing it in other areas, but that's a state law.

You actually uh whether you have an HOA or not, you have to allow it now, what's used with that dwelling unit and et cetera thing, but man, construction costs are expensive.

You're literally looking at somebody who has invested in Old Town Lafayette and has the land to add a dwelling unit and would love to add that dwelling unit with the top unit apartment that I could rent to somebody.

I cannot afford to add that.

Um the current interest rates don't make sense to add that right now.

And I know there's potential state and there's state grants being talked about.

How do we do that uh smartly for functionality?

Uh, but I mean, it all comes down to one can somebody afford it, and I can tell you in current construction costs, a lot of that is scary to it.

The rent will most likely not be affordable and what it costs to build when you factor that in.

These are the going back to experience.

I have a lot of understanding market rates.

Um the other aspect that's talked about.

I remember the not town homes, but like multi multiple units within a property.

I forget the description used in that in the land use code.

Those are tough because it gets back to the insurance question and HOA and premiums.

So I'm all for it.

But is it really going to solve the problem?

If it can affordly be done, which look, interest rates are going down.

So there is a very good chance in lending and that affordability.

But I would be very shocked if somebody can build and do it without a lot of support and grant money to where it becomes reasonable to lower the rent rate.

If anything, it's going to be high.

And we saw that with Willoughby Corner when you look at it is it is on the reasonable end, but when you look at older buildings that are out there, um, like Prana and so on, and what their one bedroom looks like in cost, um, it it comes into almost comparable when you look at that AMI and the Boulder County, which that's more boulder county instead of just Lafayette being able to control that.

But adding units, if it can be done affordably and smart for the city, it's important.

And where we do that and how where we place that is important to be smart in that decision.

Hopefully that answers everything around that.

Oh, and then the transit.

Sorry, I did not answer that.

I had to circle back to the question.

No, I mean, the transit piece, there's the the modal plan and all that.

Um, I love how much people focus around bike and walking around here, but we also need to make sure we have the infrastructure for anywhere we're adding for the extra volume.

And it's been great to learn about whether it's a state highway or the city owns it and who controls it and all those complications, and or is it shared with Lewisville?

And we're we're splitting costs and all that.

Um but I love when I I had learned and been on tours and been in meetings to when something is usually done, the city's usually been proactive and thinking about hey, how can we make this better or expand this or improve the traffic circle?

Uh, when we are talking about car transportation or future bus transportation for quick lanes and so on.

So uh that all goes hand in hand.

It's nice to see you, Rob.

Um my question is what do you believe is the most important issue facing Lafayette's future?

And what do you think Lafayette should be doing about this issue?

Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's always I remember when I was campaigning.

I mean, you can list tons of things that are super important, but if you're singling it down, it all comes around smart development, and through there, there's layers.

We talked about water, how are we gonna get water to do that?

Where are we gonna place it?

Um I think in in the community, um, also knowing like the phrase open space versus vacant land is two very different things.

What we would like to encourage to see open space and what is dedicated open space right now, but um all that goes hand in hand.

Um, we and it goes back to the environment piece.

We we live on this earth, um, we need to treat it right.

We have wildlife that we share it with and enjoy and are blessed to get to see in our open spaces, and so it circles back to one how do we prioritize smart development?

How do we be thoughtful with that process?

How do we make sure what is being built is uh the proper mix, whether commercial or residential?

Um what are they bringing to the table with resources instead of depleting our resources?

And how is it working?

Um with following the process and everything around that.

But I think everything circles around the biggest local question of development and doing it smartly.

Thank you.

Ready for the next one?

Hit me with it.

If you had a family member visiting Lafayette for the first time, which local spots or activities would you take them to and why?

Family member local spots activities.

Man, my my follow me, is it in one day or not?

Because I know the things I do already do.

I mean, so one of the coolest things about um when I moved here and and I purchased an old town.

I love the ability actually, when circling back to some of the other things you talked about, or questions that got hit and how I answered them.

Beautiful thing about Old Town at the time when I was here and I was in not in real estate, and my my schedule was very different.

I worked pretty crazy hours back then, and now I have a lot more flexibility in a good way.

It was a good change, but I was gone and traveling, sometimes flying to different states and et cetera.

And the thing I looked forward to the most was I could get home on the weekend, park my car, and walk to so many things or bike, etc.

and not have to turn that car on again and travel because of so much traveling at that time.

So it's usually I give this great walking tour.

Now I always do the drive down public, and especially this time of year with the lights and the snow.

But um I live off of canon, so we always I usually prefer to walk down canyon and start going north.

And in there, um, there's the nature side of the tour because I love that I can walk the Rossam open space without having to get and walk through crazy traffic or anything, it's just the crossover baseline.

Um, but there's the Rotham and the prairie dogs is always a fun thing when they come out.

I really don't get stuck not getting to see the prairie dogs, and then you got a great view of the Indian peaks in that area.

Um I usually make a stop on the way back to high my day and grab a beer at odd 13s, I throw that in there if they're legal to drink.

Um I love a good meal.

Um man, when when my house we were moving in, we had some uh different painting and stuff, and that first kind of like month as we were working on it, we didn't really have our kitchen set up, and we had dinner weekly at Teocalay.

Enjoyed sitting at the bar with my wife, but I've always had a meal there.

Um the dhamma Maria is my drink there, by the way.

I'll even throw that out there.

The the rum with the passion fruit.

Uh great carnagasada.

Talking about a good spin.

23 bucks for an eight-ounce carnagasada, you can easily split and have a queso fondito.

Um, and then you got in there, if timing's right, you can go to Stam and get a little gelato action uh or some chocolate, and then you can uh finish up to fit in like if you're with adults or not.

Um Foxglove opened up or or somewhere else, and yeah, if if we're in town and want to go watch a Saints game, we're going to Dillinger's.

I mean, there's always fun places to die and eat, walk, hike, and then I enjoy talking about the most gorgeous view on a pickleball court is literally at Wanaka Lake in Lafayette.

You got the lake on one side and then the peaks on the other side.

So take them out there too.

There's so many things that's within the city that you don't have to leave Lafayette to get acquire uh New Orleans.

We call it making groceries when you go to the grocery store, you're gathering, like you can do all these gatherings to not have to leave the town limit, the city limits to achieve a good time.

Council Ferdinand, before you ask this question, I just want to flag there's only about three minutes left.

So uh just one more question.

All right, you uh I thought you weren't gonna hit pickleball for a second in that in that answer, and then you got there though, which I think was it, yeah.

I was I was gonna be surprised.

Okay, so for the final question here, I'll I'll make it a little shorter.

Um so we've got a lot of strategic plans, right?

Um, not including the comp plan.

Which plan do you find the most interesting that included the comp plan, which like literally covers it all.

You're making I mean, it's probably the sustainability or the or the uh modal transportation.

I mean, man, they all kind of go hand in hand in just smart decisions for the future of the city.

I don't know if I have a love for any of them, but I mean we've tapped on so much of it and the other questions, and um I don't know if there's just one that can be picked from a strategic plan.

I think the biggest thing I'll just add is like there's not been a time I haven't been to a planning commission or city council where those plans are not being thought about and addressed when something's being done.

So it's not as much picking as one plan, they're all important, they all play a key role to the future of the city.

And so that's gonna be my answer.

I'm gonna go to the broad one.

I'm not gonna pick one.

All right, Rob, thank you so much.

We appreciate your time.

I really appreciate y'all's time.

Thank you all so much for.

A lot of food for thought.

I'm hearing a lot of things that I'm taking notes about.

Yeah.

What was the one seems to be thinking of water and think of environmentalities?

They don't think about emissions.

They don't think about their carbon footprint.

Because it's so technical, I think, that it's hard for the company.

What?

You're asking me, I'm new to this system.

I can know.

It's not wrong.

Hello.

Hi.

Hello.

For our third candidate of the night, I want to make sure I get your last name right.

So let me try because I think I know you well enough.

Kyle Bolier?

Bolier.

Bullier.

I've seen it.

I'm so I'm sorry.

Where's R in there?

There's no R.

The name has evolved over the years.

Thank you so much for being with us here tonight, Kyle.

And again, thank you so much for just throwing your name in the hat for being for your willingness to serve the city.

We will have 30 minutes for this interview.

In this interview, each one of us will ask you one question.

So 30 minutes divided by six questions, about five minutes of question if we're keeping you keeping time.

But uh feel uh do as you wish, be as thorough as you'd like to be.

And I will go ahead and get us started with the first question.

Okay.

In your own words, explain the role of city council in governing the city and describe what qualifications, experiences, or perspectives you bring that make you well suited to serve as a city council member.

Um thank you so much for having me.

It's a privilege to be here.

Um the role of city council, as I understand it, is uh I'm gonna hit with my favorites.

It's it's three three main parts.

Um, first, uh there's the legislative component, right?

Um we have a unique structure here in Lafayette, right?

We don't have a strong mayor, we have a very strong mayor, but we don't have a strong mayor, right?

We have city manager, so the quasi-judicial component of the city council is key, the legislative, but really it's Lafayette City Council is the voice of the people, right?

To advocate, to empower, to serve as the interlocutors between the citizens and people of Lafayette and the city staff, the excellent city staff that make up the government.

So I think it's a really important for um problems and issues to go through up the council, but also for the council to message out uh into the community so that the community recognizes that they're heard.

Um I will pause to note that this feels like a court martial tribunal, but I'm relatively looking at it, so I'm just gonna arb it my head back and forth.

Um see the camera.

Hey Dad, hey Frankie.

Um but I'm I'm just I'm just really trying to wrap my mind around the fact that like the city council for a large small town has such a tremendous amount of responsibility for I know a tremendous amount of pay.

Um, and there's limited hours, so I think the role of the city council also is very much prioritizing, right?

What do you work on in a key given moment?

Um, there's a lot of economic, social, political, uh, environmental shocks going on right now, and of course, a bi-weekly meeting is is difficult.

There's many uh different um boards and commissions that I know the city council liaisons with.

So there's a lot of different roles, and I think also a lot of different hats that you wear as city council.

Um pivoting to my experience and qualifications.

Uh, I don't want to bore you with the resume because I know you have it in front of you, but I do want to hit a few key things that I think are particularly relevant.

Um, with nearly two decades of experience uh in and around the federal government, I have a lot of understanding of different stakeholders' perspectives, and I think uh folks sometimes err when they come into government and they think, well, I'll just get the right approach, the right policy, and I'll just kind of convince other people of my rightness.

And I've never seen that work to include in the present political moment.

So I think really being able to coalition with others to understand that different stakeholders have valid points of view, whether we agree with them or not, um, and trying to build coalitions to compromise.

So I've done that for with the FBI with joint operations and national security on joint terrorism investigations with both uh state police with other national agencies, uh, occasionally with the US military.

I did that with the State Department with foreign government partners.

Um have a lot of experience briefing congressional staffers, which a little bit feels like this.

And you know, I think really focusing on the partnership building component and the coalition component.

Check time.

Um the other piece of experience, I mean, the past several months have been fascinating, going from being like a regular normal citizen in Lafayette to a weirdo citizen who's trying to get involved in public service.

So I think that resonates probably with the folks up there.

But the the knocking on thousands of doors, talking to hundreds of different residents, trying to wrap my mind around all the different comprehensive plans, all the different plans, all the different strategies, all the different stakeholders, all the different responsibilities that city council has, the duties.

I imagine that your email inboxes are quite a bit more full of what you're doing wrong rather than kudos for what you're doing right.

And so an element too that I have is a rather thick skin, which I think is really important to being in public service, which I've spent most of my career in public service.

I've been yelled at by General Stanley McCrystal.

So getting an email from someone who's upset that I didn't vote a certain way, like that's okay.

He invaded Afghanistan.

So I really think about, I really think about like how do you bring the personality component, the professional experience component, and then also a great deal of humility.

As of the past four months, I've tried to get smart on a lot of key issues facing Lafayette, but I know that that makes me just sort of a lay expert, but nowhere near the level of experience and involvement that many of y'all have.

And so recognizing I have a good bit of catching up to do, but also showing up and similar to Mayor Tapia Vega, once you're appointed, you're a full member of council.

So I won't look at this as an apprenticeship, but like I will hit the ground running.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And uh good to see you again.

Borley?

Bow, like a like a bow and arrow.

Yes.

Lee, um, like the defeated Confederate general.

And er, like your umming.

Okay.

Bolier.

It's gonna take me a while.

That's okay.

That's okay.

Mr.

Bolier.

Sorry.

Uh, what does the notion of climate resilience mean to you when considering the city of Lafayette's entire past, the present, and the future.

Entire past, that's fascinating.

And then let me know if you need clarification on what that means.

No, I I appreciate it.

Um it's so today's Friday.

It's staggering that we're having this conversation uh less than five days from the most recent wildfire, right?

I think uh in Mayhoe for open space.

Um, so I think I think at least one person here was supposed to evacuate from the fire zone.

So the notion of climate resilience is really front and center uh for me.

Uh I was on a bus as the wildfire approach to the marshall wildfire.

Um, I think I'm not particularly interested in relitigating the past of like where we got things wrong and climate resilience previously.

And I think some of our the comprehensive plan and our climate and sustainability plans, I think go into that in some detail.

But I think for the present moment, it's really key for us to recognize with very clear vision what's going on uh in our climate, in our weather patterns, the fact that fire season no longer just includes the summer, but now apparently includes the middle of winter and likely might be 24-7.

I think we were talking about how our trees are budding uh in in mid-January and what a threat that is.

So I think taking a step back and really redesigning everything we do for improve climate resilience is crucial.

And so I know right now I got this in the mail uh today, which is about modernizing the land use code here in Lafayette.

So I think the land use code is probably one of the most important things that we'll be doing as a city, which will have effects and impacts for decades to come.

I also think that although the present federal government is very anti-electric vehicles, I think we'll get that right in the not too distant future and begin to move the vehicle fleet from combustion engines, which of course drives drives further climate change.

But I think really investing in climate resilience in our our buildings and our land use and our water security.

Um, these are huge, huge threats.

And I I think very highly of the city Lafayette, but I also think we're a rather small player in a very big constellation.

And so everything we do in climate resilience, I think needs to not be from an island of good ideas, but needs to be in consortium and coalition with other key partners, which I know is already underway, right?

With particularly here in Boulder County, the front range, but leveraging other partners up and down the front range across Colorado to really invest in in building ones.

The last thing I'll note just we've done a little bit of work on our home, uh, my wife and I have been.

Um, and it's striking that the way we construct homes in 2026 uh is still very similar to the way we've built homes in 1950, which is essentially just a tinder box.

And so one thing I want to us to collectively think about is how do we change the land use code, building codes to be a bit more resilient, whether that's uh incentivizing metal roofs or say 20 years from now, no more asphalt shingles, but that we really do need to think uh a bit more about how to harden our infrastructure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next related topic.

What is your position on rezoning land in the city to allow for higher density housing?

And how would you want to address housing and transit in our new land use code?

Um must have jumped the gun.

Uh so in terms of rezoning, I I guess philosophically, and I really enjoyed talking about this during the campaign.

My kind of philosophical bias is to have a bit more housing density here so that we can preserve the open space and natural spaces there.

I think it's really common myth that sort of a thousand families living in a thousand uh single family detached homes with with little yards is more environmentally sustainable than packing a thousand families in a in a denser community, which is astronomically more sustainable.

Granted, people should live where they want to live, but I do think really prioritizing greater density in places where targeted places where it makes sense to do so is really important.

I know that that everyone, myself included, has some feelings about hey, if you put a you know six-story building right next to my house, how will that change my quality of life?

So I'm very empathetic to that.

But I do think we need to, and again, I'm not an urban planner, but I know we have excellent urban planning staff uh here in the city, and then of course we can hire additional expertise as needed, but I do think it's really important for us to identify key locations to build up and build out.

We talk about South Public Road as an area that could benefit from increased resist um uh increased infrastructure investment, uh, as well as some of the vacant properties.

But I don't think that then by investing there and growing the housing density, I think we have a flip side of like, oh, we can protect these natural areas so that we can really um encourage Lafayette's biomes to remain uh as beautiful as they are.

On the housing and transit piece, again, unfortunately, not lacking uh urban planning or transit expertise.

I'll just talk sort of philosophically.

I think that the three main things are one, I really want us to build for the future, because again, I do believe that electric vehicles are we're gonna get that right in the near future, hopefully, uh near midterm future.

So I think building the infrastructure so that uh as they arrive, uh folks are able to use them and access them.

Increased investment in buses.

I was up in Longmont recently, and I understand you can take a rapid bus from downtown Longmont to downtown Boulder very quickly.

I know we have some buses that go back and forth uh on South Boulder and baseline, but I think we could probably invest a little bit more to get folks where they need to be.

Um certainly a bus to Red Rocks would make everyone here uh very happy.

And then I know that uh this came up constantly in the campaign, the concern over e-bikes, uh, particularly children on e-bikes.

So I think we really need to get that right.

I'm terrified of a in the not distant future, a serious incident occurring here in Lafayette, constantly seeing kids biking around at high speed, um, you know, not helmets, no lights, wearing black at night.

What we are we're looking at a disaster, so we really need to be very forward-leaning on that.

And then I think the third thing, um, just I mentioned earlier about housing and revising our construction code, so I won't reiterate that.

But I think the third thing on transit is um, you know, I congestion pricing, I know makes a lot of sense for a place like New York City.

But I wonder are there different methods of congestion pricing that we could explore in the near, mid, and long term, since hundreds of thousands of cars pass through Lafayette every week.

Um that contributes to air pollution here that degrades our roads, not just the roads that CDOT manages, but also Lafayette's roads.

So, are there some different creative options that we can pursue that aren't gonna make folks feel like we're coming down on them, but are able to maybe make folks prioritize what you know?

Do I need to take six trips today with my car?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um my question is of all the issues there are, what do you think is the most important issue facing Lafayette's future?

And what do you think Lafayette should be doing about this issue?

Um nothing else matters that Lafayette does if our town burns down.

Nothing else matters.

So hardening our city against wildfire risk, I think is by far the most important issue, and by far the biggest threat we face.

Uh, if if conditions have been a little bit different on Monday, uh, if maybe our excellent first responders were responding to another issue, and so we're a bit delayed getting to Mayhoefer, uh, we could have lost a substantial chunk of the city.

You know, um, candidate Mike Watson uh during the campaign forum had an excellent point about uh like he's like, I'm not an alarmist, but but look at this.

And and he was right, and I think sometimes when you talk about the threat we face from wildfire these days, you sound like a crazy person, but it's but it's true.

This is a serious, serious risk.

So I think there's there's a few things I think we could do.

There's the hardening our infrastructure.

I think there's increased investment, you know.

I've heard that the fire department could benefit from a bit more resources, both for personnel and then an additional engine.

Uh I think continuing to invest in scenario planning.

Um, I believe it was the December 16th City Council meeting where the fire chief uh Pete talked about the basically the recurrence of a marshall fire type event was on the horizon, but then last minute the conditions changed.

But we ran a number of exercises and we're really cohering and preparing in a much more effective way than back in 2021, so I think that's really cool.

Did they need some investment and help so that we can war game in other situations in order to prepare for those?

A question that arises I know not all of us got the alerts uh on Monday.

Uh, I certainly didn't, despite living a mile north of that open space.

Um so what do we need to do?

Who do we need to lean on?

What doors do we need to bang on to get the alert system fixed?

Um are we all clear as Lafayette residents what our evacuation plan is?

Do we all know how to build a go bag?

And do we have a go bag in our house ready to go?

Is it are there things that the city can put out about building a go back, you know, with with appropriate uh tailored things for different folks at different points in their life.

You know, we talked about the snow angels on the council meeting on Tuesday.

Is there a similar thing for wildfire risk, right?

Because it's one thing for me to take my time and shovel you know my neighbor Bob's driveway.

It's another thing if there's a fire bearing down and I'm getting my family going, who's looking out for Bob?

So I think thinking about those particular issues.

So I think that's like the existential issue.

Then I think there's another series of issues.

Uh obviously, there's an affordability crisis that I think we're all grappling with, and I'd be remiss you know, if I didn't say I am terrified of what our federal government has become and what it's doing.

I should not know Renee Good's name.

None of us should that related to the recent murder in Minneapolis.

So I think Lafayette, while that's well outside of our manageable interests, there's nothing we can do to control that.

We can control and prepare for how we're going to behave if and when ice returns to our city, our county.

And so thinking about the existential threat in some ways that we face as a as a small town with a hostile federal government.

There was recent legislation to protect, uh I'm not gonna give us fully right, but to help water security in rural Colorado, I believe in the southeast of the state, that the president vetoed, so denying Colorado key resources against a serious threat.

So the fact that Colorado is being targeted by this federal government is a real concern for us, and that's gonna have, as this council well knows, trickle down effects for Lafayette.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm the next one, sorry.

If you had a family member visiting Lafayette for the first time, which local spots or activities would you take them to and why thank you, Counselor Gayos.

At this point, if I had a family member visiting for the first time, I probably don't like them.

So I might take them to someplace in another town.

Um fortunately, I've been very lucky to have family visit constantly, but I take I take the point of your question.

Um we are so privileged to live in such a phenomenal city with amazing local businesses, beautiful local habitat, and so um whenever friends, family visit my wife and I, we don't just sort of make a beeline for for the mountains.

We we really like walk up and down um public road.

We spend a lot of time with them at Wanaka.

We walk our dog constantly, we go to the to the to the dog park.

Um but I'll hit a few favorites uh with apologies to the others.

Um, so it's a it's top of mine.

Uh community Supper Club, uh, I should buy stock there because I love going to that amazing, amazing place.

Um they hosted a very small dinner when we got married a few years ago, of course, and we had a lovely time.

Odd 13 is just such a great brewery.

I love the vibe.

I love taking folks there to just kind of hang out.

No matter like what day of the week, there's always like good energy there.

They're so welcoming to folks of all different shapes and sizes.

Um, you know, I've if they're coming in the summer, I think the farmers market, we have one of the best farmers' markets I've ever been to, and and I think that's just a real point of pride.

Uh I've I've only been in Lafayette for three and a half years, but I understand we used to have a farmer's market, but that predates me.

But I think this farmer's market has really knocked that.

This farmer's market has been amazing, and I think just really encouraging that.

Um other sort of festivals, you know, our art nights out.

I think Councillor Ginola is very familiar with those.

I think there's a lot of um just vibrancy here, right?

Just vibrancy.

Um, Lafayette Day is coming up very soon.

So I think it depends on what time of year where we go.

Uh we got you know, three, four inches of snow this morning.

So if the folks like to cross-country ski, like we've done that around Wanka a couple times, that's a lot of fun.

Other key local spots.

I mean, liquid mechanics, um candidate Rob Glenn and I do the run club, the Thursday run club that rotates around Lafayette Breweries, so rest in peace, City City is brewing, that was a real hit.

But we go to Liquid Mechanics, Cellar West, um, odd 13.

Wanna clean?

Yeah, I'll stop there.

But uh yeah, there's just so many great things to take people to.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I've got the last one.

Good to see you.

I'm flying through, I'm sorry, I'm going too fast.

No, no, you're doing great.

Keep going.

Um, so we have a few different strategic plans that we've adopted fairly recently and and not so recently too.

So, not including the comp plan.

Which plan do you find the most interesting?

And how do you think these plans generally, the strategic plans should inform city council and making decisions?

Um I love this question, and I'm embarrassed by my answer because it's the wildlife plan.

Um I'm an obsessive, obsessive amateur wildlife photographer.

Bless you.

Um, and the fact that we have bald eagles and bobcats in Lafayette, like I didn't know that when we moved here.

Like, but my wife and I were looking for a place in the region, and we zeroed in Lafayette for all the amazing reasons folks know, but I didn't know that there were bobcats and bald egos here.

And so, like being able to learn about the environment here, and that's part just selfishly why I really want to protect our natural ecosystem.

But I think the wild plan wildlife plan is so useful because of the detail.

Like, why does a city this small have a wildlife plan?

You know, and and I think we're in the front range fans, um, which is a very unique ecosystem.

We have reparian habitat along Cole Creek.

Um, you know, we have a lot of invasive flora and fauna, right?

Coyote have outcompeted foxes.

And so the wildlife plan lays out in a way that I think is quite digestible for both someone who's a nerd on the subject, but also for a lay audience, uh, all the different um opportunities, but also how you can safeguard uh and enjoy wildlife safe, right?

So if you see a Kaidu, the Coyote Den don't approach it.

So that's my favorite, Counselor Friedman.

Um how they should inform.

I look at one of the issues I think for a regular citizen engaging with the plans is we have something like a dozen plans, right?

There's the comp comprehensive plan, there's a comp plan, and then there's a whole bunch of others, and it wasn't clear to me how they nested together.

I had to spend sort of a lot of time figuring out because they're they're published over the course of the years, and I understand the land use code is trying to operationalize a lot of the guidance from the component.

Of course, a lot in the world was very different in 2021, but that makes sense to me.

But how they nest together and how they fit.

I think I think that's something that we could collectively work on that you could collectively work on.

But in terms of how they should guide, I don't approach public service like I'm gonna show up here and and you know it's my way of the highway, or this is our way or the highway, we're gonna ignore the work that's been done, right?

Hundreds of thousands of man hours went into developing these plans over decades in order to inform and shape the city for decades to come.

So there's a great deal of thought and energy and expertise that went into them.

So I think striking a healthy balance between we shouldn't be straitjacketed by those plans, but nor should we just kind of willy-nilly wing it.

And so finding that balance, I think that that really comes back to one of the core components, which um for the first question, Mayor Tapia Vega on the role of city council is like exercising the best judgment you can, and like you're gonna get it wrong at times, and people are gonna let you know.

Um, but I think that it in um with the strategic plans, finding that balance, um, having some kind of an umbrella, how you architect and understand how they fit together and then guide decision making.

And so something I really enjoyed in some of the different uh city council meetings I've been to is when someone says, hey, this particular decision uh hangs under this different this particular plan.

So that that plan is shaping some of my thought.

At the same time, folks should bring their own experience talking to constituents and citizens and have those kind of inform and shape one another.

Um which uh brings me to a point that I did want to raise that one of the things that I really love about uh having attended city council for the past few months is like how engaged a lot of Lafayette residents are to include their expertise on the comprehensive plan on other things.

But uh a deficit, if you will permit me, that I think that we in Lafayette have is it does seem to be the same crew of expert, really engaged, wonderful local Lafayette residents, and I'm privileged to have gotten to know some of them.

But I do think there's maybe an issue if we have sort of like the usual suspects, if you will.

And so a question that I would kind of pose to council uh is what can the city, what can we collectively do differently to sort of change that dynamic, maybe get out in the world, understand logistically that's a bit difficult.

So I don't want to make our clerks uh job harder than it already is, but I do think finding a way to kind of get out and then recruit and bring folks in to sort of say, hey, have you ever taken a look at this plan?

Does this resonate?

Does this make sense to you?

Because I think the city's done a really good job with the plans, developing them, but also uh making them available in in many of them in Spanish and kind of like pushing out that expertise.

Uh I'll go ahead and stop there.

Thanks, Council.

Thank you so much, Kyle.

Uh, we have some time left.

So if you have any questions for council, this is this is your chance.

Oh I did not manage my time, well, apologize.

Um I guess I have two questions.

The first is as we enter 2026, which which already like looks as like it's gonna be a fascinating year, um, how do you balance all the excitement that I think council has?

I mean, I enjoyed the presentation from the team the other day about the capital projects and like all that funding coming online in the not distant future.

How do you balance that kind of excitement with some of the trepidation and concern with you know what's going on nationally with what's going on hyper-locally with the fires, just how you do your jobs, how do you balance?

I can't wait to push this forward with man, this is punching me in the in the mouth.

Like, how do you manage that?

Sir, any particular member of council would like to answer this.

I'm happy to do it.

Please so the way I handle it, and I will always speak for myself is I I try to gauge what what our constituents, what what the residents are saying.

So it's it's one of the one of my favorite things to do, which is engage with people and go talk to people.

Uh, we can talk about the campaign, of course, where we everyone hit thousands of doors, but the reality is that once you're an elected official, once you're up here, you should be doing the same thing.

So there's a lot of different things.

You talk about the excitement, you talk about all the things that are coming forward, and of course, as a council, we're likely excited about the projects and the ideas that we're gonna bring to this council.

We're ideally gonna, if all works out, right, if we're gonna bring to the city.

But yes, there's always uncertainty, there's always trepidation, there's always things that push back or things that kind of get in the way.

And and for me, the only real way to kind of walk that rope uh is to talk to people and kind of understand it and really just remember that at the end of the day, you're you're not here for yourself, you're representing the 30, 30,000 residents that make up our city.

So it's a really impossible question because it's it's not a one-size-fits-all.

It's uh every issue is different, every person is different, every counselor is different, but ultimately for me, and again, I will only speak for myself, it's just making sure that when I'm up here and when I'm making decisions, and when I'm reading packets when I'm talking to people, I understand that what I'm doing is is to serve the the city as a whole.

Thank you.

Could I add?

Yeah, of course.

So um I really appreciate the question because I think we have an opportunity as a council to try to really kind of get back to basics.

Um I think it comes down to providing this excellent city services, right?

Like leaning on running the city really, really well, being fiscally prudent, so that no matter what comes, we can handle it.

We have a new mayor, right?

It kind of feels like we're in a new chapter.

Our city manager has now been in the job for a little bit.

I think she's ready to really like run, right?

So we have an opportunity to kind of ask ourselves that question.

So we've got a retreat coming up soon.

And so I think I think it's a really good question.

I don't know if we have the answer yet, but to me that's sort of where my mind's been going.

Thank you.

Can I jump in there?

Of course.

Uh we've had this uh that question has come up.

And because of all the the development of all the plans, um, and I've I've heard from others, they really appreciate what Lafayette does is far as getting public input.

And we get a lot uh from one single public input event.

I do remember seeing over 300 responses to one of the questions.

Um as a city counselor, that's our responsibility to look through them.

Because the invariably you're gonna find out of that 300 five of them that you never would have thought of that were very important.

So that's where the sleepless nights come in.

Not sleepless, but uh there's some long hours because the public that's one of the great things about the city is people will provide the input if you give them the opportunity, and we do it not just online, but we do it at events.

Uh we do it when we're running into somebody somewhere and they want to talk to us, and it's critical to try and do some pattern recognition.

Uh and that requires us all to talk to each other as well.

Like somebody mentions this thing I've never heard of before, and it's like, oh yeah, someone else, a different person mentioned that same thing.

So that's part of the collaboration piece is that we have to we have to see all that public input, and then amongst us, we have to talk about what bubbled up and what surfaced.

And there will be things that we didn't see coming that we would have didn't have any idea were a problem or an issue, and uh we've had to put the brakes on before and say, Oh, let's tap the brakes and see if the city manager knows like what are we gonna do about this bit and peace?

So um, there's no way you would have known it, there's no way anybody really knows that, but that's what's going on.

Um, and I just want to let the public know we do look at all those comments, and it's a lot.

Yeah, we have three minutes left, and I think you said you had one more question, so go for it.

Can we change the city's brand?

Because I just don't love this.

And I'm wondering what you think, what y'all think.

Like, do you think that the sales shades are fit for purpose in 2026?

So I personally love this logo.

I have a lot of things in my house with the former logo because my husband grew up working for the rec center.

So my house has a bunch of old logo stuff.

If anyone wants any, let me know.

I'd be happy to share.

But when I see this, I think of the Peach Festival.

I think of public road.

So this is our community.

I love the colors, I think it's beautiful.

But it's not up to me personally.

And it's not up to council either.

Just so you know, uh, there was a branding study if you'd like, you can look back at that one.

And we did lots of public inter input to that.

Uh so it's it's something we can talk about.

We have to have the residents and the city.

Uh, you know, it's a you know the 26 ballot initiative.

And I was gonna say that, but maybe thanks for your public input on that.

We'll take another consideration.

Kyle, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you all very much.

Happy New Year.

Thank you, Kyle.

So I can on the table.

Microphone or record.

That's a microphone.

I think we should coordinate and only wear those colors to meeting.

I I don't have an opinion, but I sure wouldn't want to spend a lot of time right now when we have so many of the things on our plate.

Working on the new logo.

Just noted.

I'll get to work on a couple sketches for us.

No, no, please.

Visual things are not my thing.

We went through a big process with that.

Did you design that?

Yeah.

Thank you.

And you can go back and look at the tape, right?

Hi.

Hello.

How are you?

Hi, Jeff, how are you?

Good, how are you?

Go ahead and take a seat, or if you can stand if you'd like, which I'd ever have to see, if that's okay, thank you.

So you are the fourth and final candidate tonight, Jeff Pistana, is that correct?

Uh Pistana, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for for being here with us tonight on a Friday night, and thank you for your willingness to serve and just putting your name in the hat for this.

Yes.

Thank you all for having me, and thank you for serving.

Of course.

So this this interview will run 30 minutes.

We will each ask you one question.

So that is six questions from us.

If you're keeping track of time, that's about five minutes per question.

So be as thorough as you'd like, take as much time as you'd like.

And if there is time at the end, we will circle back and let you ask questions of us.

Great.

But with that, I will get us started with the first question.

Thank you.

In your own words, explain the role of city council in governing the city and describe what qualifications, experiences, or perspectives you bring that make you well suited to serve as a city council member.

Well, the city council exists, obviously, to make and guide policy for the city and hopefully make the city a better place to live for everybody, and that's certainly what I would want to do if I became part of the city council.

I'm part of my HOA board where I live in Centaur Village and have been on that board for six years.

I failed to mention that on my resume because I only became aware of this vacancy just shortly before the deadline, so I wrote it kind of in a hurry.

And it's been so long since I've done a resume that it felt a little uh a little uh uh not sure what the word is, but I I wasn't quite fresh on writing a resume.

But anyway, I have been serving on my HOA, and that's been a good experience and diplomacy and working together to try to get things done for the community and try to make things better for everybody.

Thank you.

Uh I have the next question.

And uh if you have any clarification on this, what does the notion of climate resilience mean to you when considering the city of Lafayette's entire past, the present, and the future?

But climate resilience?

Yes.

Can you expand on what you mean by that?

Absolutely.

So the climate, the average patterns of weather and air quality and all those bits and pieces change slowly over time.

And being able to respond to something that is unexpected repeatedly.

So say we have a flood, uh a 500-year flood two years in a row.

That's a dramatic, it's just 500 years because of that's how dramatic it is.

Right.

So if we were to have two 500-year floods, how do you set the city up to recover from the second one?

Uh be resilient, not just prepared, but build and put in place things that help us respond uh to continued issues if the climate shifts to a point where that's the new reality.

Is that is that helpful?

Yeah, I think so.

Um I I certainly agree with the science that the climate is changing and that it's a problem that needs to be addressed.

Uh I live adjacent to Cole Creek, and I was there when the last flood happened, so I'm at a first hand view of that.

And then, of course, the Marshall Fire happened, and that's a scary thing that could happen again at any time.

We just had the recent scare with the electricity being shut off.

So those are big concerns.

Um as far as dealing with them locally, I would just want to encourage the community to understand the reality of it.

I mean, it's a global issue, so I I'm not sure how much we change we can affect on that scale locally, but we can certainly encourage our own community to understand the risks and to be better prepared for the risks.

So I say there is another sudden evacuation where we all have to pack up and get out 20 minutes.

So hopefully that's not gonna happen, but we've seen that it could.

So I'd want to encourage the community to just be better prepared for those kinds of risks.

Okay, because it is a real threat that is, I believe, is going to increase and not decrease.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Thank you for coming.

My question is what is your position on rezoning land in the city to allow for higher density housing?

And how would you want to address housing in transit in our new land use code?

Well, I've lived in Lafayette for a long time, and when I moved here, it was quite a lot quieter and sleepier than it is now.

And one of the things I liked about Lafayette for a long time was that it seemed to be growing not quite as quickly as the rest of Colorado, but it's definitely catching up.

Obviously, we want to optimize housing and development for everything.

I have some concerns about development in Lafayette in general, and how can we make sure we don't get overdeveloped?

I'm concerned with Denver and increasingly boulder that population density is getting so high that infrastructure isn't adequate for it, particularly in Denver.

They built so many large high-density buildings there that I don't think the infrastructure's been able to keep up with it.

I do most of my work in Denver, so I go down there a lot for work.

But we'd want to uh do whatever is we can to avoid that kind of thing happening to Lafayette because I think a big part of Lafayette's charm has been its old town feel and its small town feel, and that's a big part of why I've liked it here and why I stayed here as long as I have.

Thank you.

So my question is what do you believe is the most important issue facing Lafayette's future, and what do you think Lafayette should be doing about that issue?

My biggest particular concerns are the open space.

I live adjacent to the Cole Creek open space, uh, so I want to make sure we do what's best for those properties because I think they're very valuable to the community.

And then as I just was describing just the development in general, because as we all know, development is increasing and not decreasing.

Um I have uh special interest in traffic management, and I think there's things that could be done to improve the flow of traffic around the city, so that's something I have a lot of interest in.

And uh I'm I'm not a uh scientist who studies this, but uh as far as development patterns and all that, but but basically what I've just said is what I think we need to be focused on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm up next.

Thank you for being here on a Friday night with us.

Thank you for being here on a Friday.

Of course.

So if you had a family member visiting Lafayette for the first time, which local spots or activities would you take them to and why?

Uh, my personal favorites in Lafayette are the Coal Creek Trail, which I walk almost every day that I'm in town.

Wanaka Lake is another favorite, so I'm a big fan of the parks.

Um, of course, old town Lafayette has got a lot of charming little spots and some nice restaurants.

Our neighbor Lewisville is also a great place to go and enjoy the old town over there, and then boulders right next door.

But as far as keeping it in Lafayette, those I think would be the three highlights would be the Col Creek Trail and Monica Lake and the old town.

Thank you.

Of course, there's the big giant church, which, as I understand, is the largest church in Colorado for people who are interested in that kind of thing.

Flat.

Oh, last one from me, Jeff.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you.

Um, so we we have a number of strategic plans that we've adopted over the last few years.

Um, not including the you know, overarching comprehensive plan.

Um which of those plans do you find the most interesting?

Um, and how do you think plans like that should inform uh decision making on city council?

Well, I have to confess I'm not familiar with the plans you're referring to.

Can you just briefly describe what they are?

Yeah, there's there's quite a few of them.

We have the multimodal transportation plan, our climate action plan, our Crow's plan, parks, recreation open space, um, just to name a few.

Um, do any of those?

I wonder if let's say let's take the parks recreation open space plan, because you mentioned open space was um of interest to you.

When there's guiding principles in a plan like that of how do we conserve open space, how do we maintain and manage open space?

How would you use something like that that's been done before you, right?

Spend a bunch of time in a decision today.

How would you use that to inform your decision if you were chosen to be on city council?

Well, that would depend on the content of what's in those plans, which I I again I'm not familiar with.

But regarding the open space, I know that the city's been active lately and trying to uh reduce the social trails that are made on the property, a lot of which appeared in COVID.

So I have clear ideas on how I'd like that to be handled and how I think that can be optimized.

And then again, with the development that affects us all in terms of where housing's gonna be built and how much and commercial and all that.

Uh, but these are all the the big issues that I think affect any city, so it would just be a part of what we'd all have to face if we were all on the board together.

But I before I could give more detailed information, I I'd have to have a closer look at those plans, which I as I said completely familiar with.

Fair enough.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Jeff, we appreciate the answer to all of our questions.

There's some time left.

Do you have any questions for City Council?

Well, uh, thank you all for serving because I know it can be a thankless job at times, and that's how it sometimes is on our HOA.

Um I don't know any of you personally, so I I'm not sure exactly what your own interests are.

Would you would you all mind telling me just briefly what your own particular areas of concern are within Lafayette?

Crystal.

Sure.

Um, so I care a lot about responsible growth because it is more than just approving every development that comes before us, it's a much more complicated process.

We have to make sure our infrastructure can support it.

We have the water, something else that makes me a bit different than every other candidate is that I care a lot about education.

Um so that's not really in our scope, but if there is any opportunity for me to connect something to education, I usually will.

And I just want to preserve our community's character.

So I do think it's a lot different than when I first moved here a decade ago.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I've been here 25 years, and it was a lot different.

But uh, regarding what you said, uh I I think Broomfield is a good example of what not to do because I feel like Broomfield is just building anything and everything they can, or that's how it seems to me, driving through it.

So I'd rather avoid that and and preserve the small town character that we have here that Broomfield doesn't really have.

Adam, can you ask you the same question?

I think echoing that, you know, preserving the small town character, really for me, it's make maintaining and developing a sense of community.

To me, that's something that I'm really I love that about Lafayette, is that we we sort of have that.

You know, there's every single person tonight has said open space is one of those things they would take their visitors to.

There wasn't a single uh applicant who didn't give an example for open space.

Um, but I think you know, so much of the community is is like-minded uh when it comes to things like open space or things like you know climate change and addressing and adapting to that.

That for me personally is how I got involved with city politics, and so I've got a specific eye to you know help direct and and try to make sure that the city's doing a good job with respect to that.

Yeah, we're lucky to have really wonderful open space properties here.

I mean, the Col Creek Trail in particular is just a real gem that not many other communities can say they have something like that.

And Wanaka Lake is another really good one.

Uh so as far as where I live in my community, which is in Cole Creek, um Centaur Village neighborhood.

Uh yeah, we have a sense of community there because it's a condo complex, so we we definitely have that sense of community among the folks that live there, but uh yeah, I'd like to get more involved with the entire community of the city of Lafayette, reach beyond my own little neighborhood there.

Yeah, I mean, one of the other things that I've done in my past is be involved with some of the city boards and commissions and the sort of development of some of the plans that we've talked about, and I found that an engaging way to really kind of help build and drive that sense of community.

Great.

Thank you for doing that.

Yeah.

All right.

Saul, is there anything you'd like to tell me about your special interests?

Sure.

So I love the city of Lafayette.

I I moved here 30 years ago when I was, well, my family moved here when I was two.

So I grew up here while I watched the city grow.

You talked about what the city looked like 25 years ago.

I was here 25 years ago.

I was much younger than I am now.

I but I was here, so I I watched the city grow kind of around me as I grew up.

And and one of the biggest things for me is I I'm gonna echo a lot of what was already said, but just making sure that our community is able to continue being what it is.

Uh the city of Lafayette, the the one thing I hear the most is while we have grown, they've done an incredible job.

This the past councils and staff have done an incredible job of seeing that growth responsibly, uh pragmatically, and in a way where we don't lose that small town feel.

It's something that's important to all residents.

It's why people want to live here, right?

We have the coolest city around.

It's because of the way it feels to live here.

We've grown by huge numbers if you look at it from 25, 30 years ago, but it doesn't feel all that different.

You can feel other cities that have grown the same percentage that we have, and it just feels completely different.

The city of Lafayette feels relatively similar to what it was.

It still feels like a small town community.

So resiliency is another one that's that's been thrown around here.

It's something that I I stand behind, whether it be climate resiliency or just being a resilient city in the face of everything that's coming down from the federal government to absolutely everything across across the board.

So just a resilient city in a city that fits its its neighbors, it fits its neighborhood and fits all of all the kids like me who grew up here.

So that's that's what I care about, and that's why I love the city of Lafayette.

Yeah, that's great.

So it's home to you.

I've lived here longer than I've lived in any other single place, so it's kind of home to me too, even though I wasn't born here.

And I agree with you that past city councils and everyone who's been involved have done a pretty good job relative to other communities in terms of maintaining the small town feel.

So that's great.

Thank you.

Uh Tim.

What can you what would you like to tell me?

Uh thank you for the question.

Um I I grew up as a military brat, so I was all over the place.

And what I noticed traveling around the world after being with my family military is that it is possible to maintain what I believe is important, the hometown feel that people have mentioned here, uh, if you're aware of how to do that.

And the reason I decided to be uh to try to be on council, uh, was because with a an existential threat, which uh you mentioned the change of a global climate, it's it's not it's an equal opportunity issue, and if we know what's coming up, we can prepare for that.

No one knows exactly what's coming up, but we do know what our weaknesses are, and we know what our strengths are.

The hometown feel that's here is a strength.

Community is a strength for us.

It's not for every place that I've been.

Uh, but understanding what builds community, what sustains community is my interest, and enhancing that by putting in place mechanisms to maintain those bits and pieces.

And the city is a complex entity, and the people make that even more challenging.

The good thing about that challenge is that I can't tell you how many people have told me they love this city, and love, you know, is what you need.

Uh was it there's a John Lennon song, I think, uh, about that.

It's all you need.

Um so we just need to channel it and break down those barriers, like with the mayor and all of my colleagues, and you know, those who are on council, what we just have to do is make sure that ultimately the hometown feels stays.

We have a functioning uh place that we live in that's resilient to whatever comes at us, and I hope that you're far enough away from Cole Creek that you're not in the flood zone.

Uh and maybe that I'm far enough away to not get flooded, is that what you said?

Yes.

I'm pretty close.

Uh we had a scare the last time.

I actually the block that I'm on got completely surrounded by water at one point.

Okay, that's that's something I think is a vulnerability, and we have a sustainability resilience advisory board that could weigh in on bits and pieces like that because over time that could be very problematic.

Um affordable attainable housing is something that everyone everyone needs shelter.

Everyone needs we have a lot of food.

We have some great food in the city, but I need to I want to make sure everybody has a place to live.

And those are that's what I want to see is hometown, community, resilient, um, and affordable, attainable.

I want people to be able to live in a place.

Uh and diversity of housing is one of those things that we need.

So that's not one thing of interest, that's my whole I'm kind of a handful.

So that's smaller.

There's so many things to be concerned about.

And uh, yeah, I I agree, as we've all been saying that we love Lafayette.

I've I've thought about moving, I've looked at other places, but keep coming back here and planning to stay here.

And regarding the uh climate situation, I obviously things are serious right now with the talk about shutting NCAR down and that kind of stuff.

I mean, we certainly have our work cut out for us in terms of being prepared for the changes that are coming, but I agree that that's of the highest priority, and we need to emphasize that kind of thing.

And yes, and I don't think NCAR is gonna get shut down.

So my opinion.

Well, hopefully it won't, but I mean, obviously, there's a threat.

Yes, but I I agree, probably isn't gonna happen, but I mean, things are so crazy now that who knows.

But either way, uh, we we've got a lot of work to do on that issue, so glad that's important to you.

Thank you.

Wow, I what's there to say?

Um I think hi Rand for Council uh with in mind uh sort of balance that we we have to balance the need for protecting open lands with the need for finding places for people who work here to live affordably and attainably.

We also have to have enough money to maintain the open lands that we have, which means we have to have uh a tax base that is adequate to cover the costs that we have, and everybody knows that our costs are going up, and so we need to support our business community and our small businesses in particular, which are kind of the heart of Lafayette.

At the same time, we have people making very low wages, and so we need to look at, you know, we have an opportunity in the future to look at you know, a local minimum wage that might be increased to cover the higher costs of uh living here than maybe in some other places.

Uh so I I look at all of those things, but I think uh, you know, equity.

Like, are we putting all our amenities in one side of town and leaving you know out other parts of town so they don't have a coal creek trail to or something similar to walk on?

So the concept of equity as we provide services is real important to me to make sure both like in walking the community.

I have I walked in some really nice fancy neighborhoods, and then I walked in some neighborhoods where you know screens were falling off the doors and windows were broken, and you know, they're clearly people who couldn't afford to fix things.

So we have a diversity of people in our community, and so when I talk about balance, it's to make sure that our policies reflect the needs of everyone and not just those who can afford things.

So that's part of what I'll be looking at.

And I'm brand new, I'm one of the new people, so haven't had much time to start really thinking about those values and what that means in terms of actual policies, right?

Well, that's yeah, kind of how I feel since I don't fully understand the the workings of the body, but I'm glad that those concerns are important to you, and that sounds just as valid and important as everything else we've been discussing.

Thank you.

So I'll admit I was I was skeptical when you first asked this question because I was like, it's seven o'clock on a Friday.

But I want to thank you for asking the question, Jeff, because it's given us a really interesting little moment here to hear from everyone on the council.

And so thank you for asking the question.

Genuinely.

That's important to me that everybody gets to say what's important to them.

I appreciate that.

So I will say two things.

The first thing I'll say, uh in my time remaining on council, which I don't know how long it'll be, I guess.

Um sustainability and resiliency being actually internalized and operationalized in our community in our city.

Um we talk a lot about it.

We have great plans, we have great staff, but it feels like too often it's not fully ingrained.

We don't really understand what we mean when we're saying sustainability and resiliency.

And we need to better understand that.

We need to make sure everybody from entry level first, you know, first job at the city to all the way at the top.

Needs to understand what we what we say when we say sustainability and resiliency.

The second thing I would say is it's crazy to me that a community as incredible as ours.

I think we kind of get looked down on by our neighbors, which I don't know.

I mean, I I don't know if others agree with that, but like, you know, whether it be you know sometimes folks trying to encroach on our borders, um, or looking at us as you know, the affordable housing solution for the county.

Um, it just doesn't feel great, or you know, the way sometimes we get treated by the state, passing, you know, blanket policy, and not thinking about what does it mean for us and what are lessons that we could teach because we figured out this in a lot of ways.

So that's the other thing I would say too that's important to me is I think we need to really feel confident that we are truly, you know, I think one of the best communities in the state, if not the best.

And we should act like it.

So um, I would say those two things.

Great.

Yeah, I agree that uh this is a wonderful community as we've all been saying, and I I certainly in the past have understood what you're saying about people maybe looking down on us.

I'm not sure it's as bad as it may have been in the past, but uh, we certainly have a great community, and there's no reason not for us all to be proud of it.

And in fact, we're lucky in a lot of ways to live here.

It's a really amazing place in many ways, if you think about it.

Indeed.

I mean, it's a good convenient place to be in the metro area.

It's a quiet, peaceful place most of the time, and just like to see it keep getting better and better.

Jeff, thank you so much for throwing your name of the hat, and thank you for meeting with us tonight.

Yes, thank you all.

It's been great to hear from you, and uh when one way or another, I hope we can all work together and just keep making things better.

Thank you.

On to the next item pertaining the filling of the city council vacancy, uh public input.

We will begin with Vicky Ewan.

Hi, I'm Vicky Elen three oh three with Simpson Street, and um I wanted to start by uh just saying what great questions you guys asked.

I really appreciate them.

I think they really gave us a lot of insight into the candidates.

So well done, you guys.

Um I would like to intro uh endorse um Kyle Bolier, which I hope I said right.

Um and give you my reasons why.

Um I first met Kyle on September thirtieth on the um Capital Improvements bus tour.

And um there were out of the five council candidates who had not served on council or board or commission or a city committee, four of them went on the tour, and that included all three that interviewed tonight.

And I was um really impressed that um we had such quality candidates that were that were doing this.

I mean, I sometimes wonder if they ever went to a city council meeting or watched one or had any idea how city government worked.

And um so, you know, when the list of candidates came out, I was like, okay, well, you know, check, check, check, check, check.

And um and so I am always predisposed to to be interested in the people who I feel like really know how things work.

So I talked briefly to Kyle on that um bus tour, and I thought, well, this is a nice guy, but I'm gonna put him in the category of you know, not knowing that much about city stuff.

And then like in the next five weeks, I watched him go from like zero to sixty.

I mean, I have never seen this before in the twenty years that I have lived here.

I have never seen a candidate get up to speed that quickly on our city stuff.

I mean it not just talking to me, but talking to so many people would tell me, oh yeah, Kyle's asking me about the the city plans, or you know, he was reading the city code, or he read the Wikipedia page about Mary Miller, you know, and I mean I I would not be surprised if Kyle has memorized the comp plan.

And I am I I am so impressed by that, and I think that that dedication and commitment and hard work and just intelligence to get himself up to speed will be helpful as a council person.

I mean, you guys all know that no matter how much you know, you've got to ramp yourself up and learn how to be a council person.

And I I think that I I feel confident that he can do that.

Um the other thing that really impressed me is is I mean, I heard from so many people.

Oh, yeah, I talked to Kyle about this.

I meant to cut I met with Kyle about this, and to me, the most important thing that a Lafayette City Council person does is listen to the public because that's who you represent.

That's and that's who you speak for.

And so I am you know, I'd see like a Reddit for him, and somebody asked a question, and Kyle wrote like 200 words in response, you know, and just the the time and the thought that went into really trying to address people's issues and to also get out what he thought.

I think it's really important.

And the final thing is that he was the runner up in the votes.

I'm I am not of the belief that the fifth place finisher or the next place finisher should always be appointed because some of those have not deserved it.

But in this case, I think that Kyle really has, and I think that the people have spoken just two months ago about what they wanted.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Up next, we will hear from Karen Norbeck.

Karen Norbeck, 800 East Tennessee, oh, good evening.

So I just can't come up here and wing it.

So I wrote something, and if it wasn't, if I the person I talked about didn't impress me in the interviews, I was just gonna throw it away and just do nothing.

So this is what I have.

And congratulations, uh, new and returning counselors.

I watched previous councils handle vacancies in a variety of ways over the years, often on the fly, until finally one council decided to put some structure around the process.

It might have happened so they could stop Vicky Euland and me from showing up time and time again, asking them to do it, but they made some needed and welcome changes.

During the discussions about making these changes, flexibility came up.

Some councils wanted too much.

Some councils were looking at how the appointee would work with the council.

They weren't looking at the reason why the person was being appointed, which was to represent the residents of the community.

You all have been chosen by the voters to fill the seats in which you now sit.

And with such a recent council election, you can look at who the voters picked in fifth place and consider them for the vacancy.

Some folks might tell you that a change should be made and the next person should automatically get that seat.

But going back to that previous council's discussion about flexibility, I think they set the process up quite well by requiring an interview process and public input.

I have watched many Lafayette elections quite closely.

This last election we had some great candidates, but I can tell you in the past, there have been some who should be nowhere near one of the council seats.

And if only five people ran, we would quickly regret that automatic process.

Tonight you will consider Kyle Bolier, the fifth vote getter from an election that happened so recently that four of you who ran with him were sworn in only a month ago.

And it turns out that in this case, he is a stellar candidate who worked his butt off to get elected, coming within a squeak of fourth place.

His resume is impressive, unlike any I have seen from a council candidate.

And I think he will bring something to the council that will be a benefit in many ways to the community and complement the skills and backgrounds of all of you.

The learning curve for a new counselor can be a struggle, but in his case, I have no doubt that he will hit the ground running.

I stood here a few months back and spoke about our previous city administrator, Fritz Sprague.

I told the story of how impressed I was with him when he applied for the job.

When I went to a candidate meet and greet, instead of filling out a feedback form, I went to the counselors in the room and said, it's Fritz, pick Fritz.

They did, and it was a great decision.

So tonight I am here would say the same words with a different name.

It's Kyle.

Pick Kyle.

He is the right choice.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Up next, we have Ron Spaulding.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, Ron Spauding 1326, Elder Rodaway Lafayette.

It's always tough to come up behind Ricky and uh Karen.

And I will say that I agree with everything they have said, so I'll try to be brief.

First, I want to say that I'm grateful for the number and quality of candidates for city council that we had this year.

Kyle Boyer, Michael Watson, Rob Glenn, ran in the election, and have reapplied for the last council position.

Our Mr.

Jeff Bostana is a new candidate as quite the gentleman that I met for the first time tonight.

I have reviewed all their applications, attended all the interviews, and met with each of them individually.

I applaud them for their perseverance and their pursuit to become a city council member.

However, now only one can be chosen, and it's a difficult decision to make.

With that said, I support Kyle Boyer for City Council.

I wholeheartedly agree with former city council member Nicole Sampson's comments, made a Tuesday City Council meeting, which you were all at.

I will not reiterate any of those comments.

Qualities that stand out to me are Kyle was number five in the election, close to number four, and has had uh strong community support.

His years and knowledge working in various difficult government positions and unique skills in collaboration and conflict resolution, which are sorely needed in today's political climate.

Kyle's resume and application, in my humble opinion, is exceptional and very impressive.

As Karen just mentioned, I've never seen a resume and application come in for any position in any board that was so cuts right to the chase.

I mean, it was it was super.

Simply said, Carl Borrier is a candidate who aligns mostly with my political ideals, philosophy, and experience.

But I want to take this time to thank each of the candidates, and Rob's here tonight, not looking around, but those who are here for their integrity in this election process.

As stated earlier, man, they worked together.

There was no infighting, and we just have good people.

And I'm just overwhelmed and tickled pink and sorry that every one of them can't be a council member.

Because it takes a lot of time, work, and tenacity, and running for position that will test your mettle.

And you know you all be tested.

I want to thank them and thank you for giving the public the opportunity to speak.

Appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Up next, we have Frank Phillips.

Good evening, Mayor Tapia Vega.

Congratulations.

Um, and also good evening to the rest of council.

Um I'm here tonight, just uh just I guess to comment.

Um I was the moderator for the AFIA chamber debates.

So as a moderator, got to see all of the candidates and you know, really listen to their questions and answers.

And I think the one that kind of stood out for me was Kyle.

Um, very succinct, and they were answers a lot of times.

Particularly tonight, I heard a lot of words salad and a lot of questions didn't necessarily even get answered, or didn't even wind up in the person's explanation.

So that's kind of you know, in the job you have, as you well know, you have to really be on point on focus and on on the issue.

So, and I think Kyle definitely impressed me with those qualities and also a maturity and an understanding of the decision making process.

Um certainly some expect um experience working with national government.

I guess in in this process, I really again appreciate all the all the people who ran and the effort they put into it, regardless of you know their level of expertise.

Particularly because that is the thing that makes Lafayette what it is, that we believe that our participation counts and that we participate in government in various fashions.

So, you know, again, in line with that, I I think Kyle kind of fits in with that with that line of thinking.

So that would be another reason why I think he would be probably the best candidate, even though your other candidates definitely had a lot of passion and interest, and I hope they continue to pursue that.

Um because again, there'll be another election in two years or four years or wherever.

Um the only one thing I want to say is um to those if there are any young people watching tonight, six seven.

I love it.

Thank you so much.

Up next, we have Roy Johnson.

Hello everybody.

I'm Roy Johnson, 2547 Sweetwater Circle.

Uh good evening to each of you.

I know you're waiting to see the football game, so I'll try to read uh we are fortunate that uh you and we have some great candidates tonight.

I'd like to say a few uh words about diversity, uh, not of gender or ancestry tonight, or apparently tonight, but of diversity of thought, uh opinion point of view.

Uh not just what was expressed uh by the candidates tonight, but what they said over the last few months and in the forums.

Um had some different opinions.

Uh so I encourage you to uh select someone who has some differing points of view than your own.

Um that see uh some things differently than you, and that uh it is my opinion that diversity, including diversity of thought, is not a threat, not a disruptor, uh, but to strength for city council.

I ask you to encourage the candidates not selected to keep coming to council meetings to stay involved.

Um that you are familiar with them and they have your ear to assist you council members to represent the public's wishes.

Um so those are my thoughts.

Um and I just have one more thought, and this is a suggestion possible possibly for you consider to discuss at your retreat, is that uh there seems to be a great imbalance between the number of men and women who run for law PSC Council this this last election, and tonight we heard from uh four men, four male applicants and no women applicants, and that may be fine for you, and it may not indicate anything to you, but to me it it says maybe there's something not quite perfect here.

Maybe we should have a diverse uh the diversity of gender would add more to the council, and do women feel that um not as encouraged to run.

Um I don't know, maybe it's not a problem in your minds, but to me it just seems of killed there.

So maybe it's an idea that you could discuss at your retreat, and maybe you won't.

And that's my word solid for today.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh, next we have Seth White Council.

I'm uh Seth White, 311 Chester Street.

Um, and so uh, as you know, you have a very important decision to make tonight.

Um, however, in my view, this ought to be the easiest decision that any of you will make during your terms.

Um in November's election, as you know, there were four seats available.

Then our mayor uh resigned shortly thereafter, essentially opening up a fifth seat.

Um, and so I mean no disrespect to Mr.

Postana, but I think the counselor you appoint tonight should be um one of the three men who took their time to become engaged uh in the leadership of the city and you know spent their time and their energy to run a campaign.

You all know how hard that is.

And among those three, uh, I'd like to recommend Mr.

Uh Bolie.

Um in the election, he came in a close fifth place by 382 votes.

So if our former mayor had resigned just a month earlier uh and opened that fifth seat to the popular election, um, or a couple months earlier, uh he would have been elected by a fair democratic process in which uh you know it represented the will of Lafayette citizens.

And uh that's important to me.

Um you may say this is a hypothetical situation, but really it kind of isn't.

Um, when you know the city is currently updating its zoning code and the planning commission is looking at do open houses, surveys, um, get public input, you know, so on and so forth.

Well, when it comes to this decision tonight, you just had public input to the tune of almost 12,000 votes.

Um, the people have spoken, and in the way I see it, they uh they want Mr.

Bolier in this position.

Um, I place a lot of weight on the outcome of that election, uh, maybe more so than some people who have spoken before me.

But who came in fifth place is not the only measure.

Right.

I've seen candidates who have come up just a few votes short that uh in my view should have been nowhere near a lever of power.

Um, but that's not what we have with Mr.

Bolier.

Um I mean no disrespect to Mr.

Watson or no disrespect to Mr.

Glenn or even Mr.

Pastana.

If if you had if you chose to uh appoint any of them to this council, uh I'm not gonna stay up and having nightmares.

Okay.

Um but in my view, uh uh Kyle was the strongest candidate.

He's competent, thoughtful, intelligent, experienced, prepared, knowledgeable.

Um it's one of the strongest candidates I've seen uh in the 10 or so years I've been paying attention to city business.

Um so that's my opinion.

And uh I think the election results say that that's also the opinion of a great number of your constituents.

I mean, Vox Pop.

So thanks.

Thank you so much.

I see no more speaker request forms.

Is there anyone else here who would like to speak?

Good evening, council members.

Uh, my name is Jack Rosenthal.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you tonight.

Um, I think we saw a lot of great candidates come up tonight.

Um some of them ran in the election, and uh uh some of them came up here with a passion, and I think um uh each one of them would bring new and unique views and to council here.

However, um one of them clearly stands out, and I would like to um offer my endorsement and support to uh Kyle Bolier.

I get it.

Um he um not only not only was a lick away from getting on council um in terms of votes, but uh he showed up to the R slash Lafayette Co.

subreddit, uh sleepy little subreddit if you've ever been on there, and uh uh found the voice of the community and found the people who uh didn't know how council worked and uh were interested in how our city's gatherings works here, um and uh uh reached out to them and connected with them.

And I think that's uh an extremely valuable skill uh that that we should see of somebody who can represent their community.

Um, I think um uh, you know, I myself uh I'm running for the RTD board, but um I think uh he's got the right mindset when it comes to transit when it comes to zoning and when it comes to where our city can be.

Um so if you would uh consider my voice, uh I think he'd be the right choice.

And Jack, if you wouldn't mind, could you fill out one of these speaker request forms?

They're in the back of the glass door, and when you fill it out, just hand it over to our city clerk.

We'll do.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else here who would like to speak?

Yeah, my name's uh Brandon Powell 676 South Carr Avenue, and I'm sent here with uh uh my by my wife as well.

So we've both wanted to be here but could not uh too little kiddos.

Um but I just wanted to, I won't take much time, but really just wanted to um get throw my like full our full support around uh behind Kyle at this point.

Just noticing um we're both fairly new to Lafayette actually, um, to move here only about a year and a half ago.

Um I found a certain amount of hope and a certain amount of um just interesting and I think that's a specific kind of um snack to be able to explain some very difficult and complicated issues that are impacting every single one of us in some incredible ways, and then kind of bring them, bring other people into that conversation too.

So I myself find myself really more engaged in this election than I've ever been in any sort of local election personally.

So I really appreciate the uh willingness to kind of teach me and then for me to learn a little bit more, and then I've loved um shout out to the substack as well, uh, because I really enjoy like learning more about the local politics as well here.

So um so full support behind Kyle as well.

Thank you so much.

And similar, if you wouldn't mind for learning for thank you.

Is there anyone else present who would like to speak not seeing anyone else?

I will turn and check if there are any calls, no calls.

Okay, and with that, we will close public info inputs.

Uh moving on to our final item pretending to fill in the city council vacancy comes time for our discussion and consideration of the vacancy appointment.

So this is gonna be fun, I hope.

Um but I'll just I'll just I don't know.

Is there anyone on who would want to go first who would want to give their thoughts on the candidates on the interviews?

Councilor Gianello.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I'm happy to give my thoughts.

Um I ran for this uh city council uh with three of the candidates, and you know, we've heard from the public and and many people throughout the sort of course of filling this vacancy um about this the camaraderie and the sportsmanship and and just the the kind of good you know good uh uh tongue-tied here that just you know it was a it was a fair election.

It was you know the candidates were cordial to one another, and that really um stood out to me not just for the three candidates that we heard from tonight, the three applicants we heard from tonight, but all the um candidates throughout the campaign uh this last fall.

Um tonight, you know, the interview process was really interesting to see the breadth of questions that we uh got from the council and to hear each of the candidates uh the applicants' responses.

You know, the the person who stood out to me tonight actually was Mike Watson.

Um I think he's got a good heart and a strong passion for what he believes in.

Uh Mike, I just resonate with you on it on so many things that you say.

Um and so I just wanted to give you a shout out uh because I think you know you would be uh a great addition to this council.

Thank you, counselor.

Anyone else who want to give their thoughts?

Councillor.

So I'm having a hard time coming up with the top one, but based on the interviews, I have a top two, and they are Rob Glenn and Kyle Bolier's.

I hope I said that right.

So Rob just seemed genuine and relatable, and some of his answers made me smile and really exuded his genuine love of Lafayette.

Kyle, I'm very appreciative of the campaign process, and that he did come in with the fifth number of votes.

I appreciate his experience.

But those are definitely my top two.

There was one that I felt wasn't quite ready yet.

Um, and that is Mr.

Pistana.

So I appreciate his passion, and that he did come through this process, but I don't think he's ready just at this time.

Thank you so much, Councillor Gallegos.

Looking over to this side of the room.

Is there any counselor who would like to add some thoughts?

Does it do we have to say something?

You don't have to say anything.

Okay.

Allowing um, well, I guess I would say um I especially the three candidates who ran in the election are very impressive.

And uh I like you all I wish that we could choose all of you.

Um unfortunately we can't.

So I I'm struggling a little.

I I think I have one favorite, but it's not it's marginal, you know.

It's just, you know, everybody is impressive to me.

And uh I have a lot of heart.

And that's something that I really value.

And so um I that's all I guess they thank you so much.

Councilor Fridland, Mayor Bro Tem.

Any any thoughts to add here.

No, let me move.

Okay, either way.

Okay.

Um I kind of are I'm gonna go back to when I I can't even apply for an open seat here, and I was told quite clearly from the mayor uh who was seated, and the uh former mayor, nope, not this time, you're gonna have to run for your seat.

So uh there's a time for everything, and I feel like um that's part of our responsibility is now when the time is for certain action, and it's hard, it's super hard.

And um I think it's abundantly clear how committed people are in the city to the action that's here, and this is all genuine uh what you're seeing.

Uh and we've gotta make this decision.

We can only fill one spot.

And I do hope that everybody who's here, and I I'm pretty sure you will keep coming back for these meetings, but we do have to fill a seat.

And one of the things that was pointed out very clearly to that former mayor is we need somebody ready to hit the ground running.

Uh so if I'm using that criterion, I was I was told right out of the gate that we should pick the fifth place person because it's a fifth place person.

And I was like respectfully thinking in my head, just because they're fifth place doesn't make them uh a good person to be in this spot.

And I said you've gotta I gotta see something that says that this is a person who should be in this spot.

And not only uh by hit the ground running, I mean they have an idea of what the plans are that we're working on, what the issues are we're dealing with, and probably most importantly the the the reality of listening to the people who are here because that's why you're at this seat, is to represent what the broad 31,000 34,000 people get that right.

They anyway, the everyway everyone in Lafayette, you gotta be able to represent what they what they have to say.

And as I mentioned earlier, we get a lot of input.

We we see what the public's commenting on, we talk to people about what it is we're doing, and they give us advice.

We gotta know if that advice is like realistic.

So um in this case, I think the I think the most important thing to do is to um get the candidate, bring the person in who has the background, has done the work.

Uh everybody here has done the work.

I think there's one candidate who has done more work, and I'm listening to the residents.

They're telling me like, hey, I've I've seen what this person has been doing.

Uh and we've got people coming out of everywhere uh to support this one candidate.

So I'm I support Kyle being in that seat.

Uh Kyle Bolier.

Did I get that?

I got it.

Okay.

Um, and that I I say that not because anyone else is not qualified.

I say that because right at this moment, at this point in time, in this day in the moment, this is the person who should be in this seat.

And as was pointed out, things change.

Uh in two years, things are gonna change here.

Uh I don't think anybody's gonna stop loving this place and wanting to work with us, but I I feel like in the moment this is the person that um we should bring on.

Thank you, Mayor Bro Tem.

Council Fredland, anything?

Yeah, uh, you know, I I really appreciate everybody putting their name in.

Um but Kyle just gave us a gift of 30 minutes, quite frankly.

His answers to the questions were so concise and so filled with expertise and substance.

Um I'm glad that we did this whole process to have that 30 minutes on the record for other people to go to watch.

Um it was fantastic.

Um to me, he was very clear that he um is gonna bring a lot of expertise and a lot of talent up here.

Um and I think we're gonna we're gonna be really happy we make the decision of bringing Kyle on.

So I'm I'm very supportive of uh of Kyle.

Thank you.

We're gonna have to make a decision before we do.

Let me just give my thoughts because you all did, so I might as well do the same.

Uh I I will say the first thing is yes, thank you to everyone who applied uh to be part of this vacancy, put their name in the hat.

Uh the second thing I will say is that we're we're a little spoiled in the city of Lafayette.

Uh we if you go back to the to the to the election, if you look look at the 10 candidates, uh we have a lot of incredible people in the city of Lafayette and a lot of people who ran were just amazing, and I don't think there's a single one that ran that I that I wouldn't have liked to work with, and I wouldn't have liked to have the styles with us.

So that's the first thing.

I I I want to thank all the applicants now.

I want to think for their time, but also it's gonna be a hard decision because I think a lot of the applicants are very strong.

However, we do have to pick someone, and for me, it's gonna be an especially hard decision because I didn't come in knowing who I was gonna pick or even leaning one way or another.

I really wanted to see what what tonight brought us, and uh I I think two stood above above the rest, and I'm gonna echo the the thoughts of Councillor Gallegos here in saying that Kyle and I folier got it.

All right, Kyle and then Rob Glenn.

Uh Rob Glenn, I I really love what he said specifically because one of our one of our residents brought it up.

We're we're looking at diversity, but diversity means a lot of different things, and diversity of thought is something that is something we need, something that is that is helpful to a council such as this, and when he when he talks about his business experience and the and the background that he could bring to this council, something that I think has always been missing from city council, someone who can work alongside small businesses, but also know the other end, the the end of the entrepreneur, the the side that we don't get to see much on this council.

So that's why I think Rob was an incredible, incredible candidate.

But of course, Kyle.

Um absolutely nailed it tonight.

Uh I think you you you you've learned so much.

I remember talking to you at the beginning of the campaign, which was months and months ago, it feels at this point.

Um and yes, I think one of our residents nailed it at the time.

I you you didn't even know who I was, which was hilarious.

But move fast forward a couple of months, and it feels like you know everything about the city when I talk to you because you you've done your homework, and that's something that I truly respect.

And as someone who also came onto this council through a vacancy process and probably didn't know as much as I should have, but quickly learned that I'm gonna have to get reading because there's a lot to learn before you actually make a decision up here.

I respect how much you've you've put into it, and I respect just how much you've learned and how much you you've shown your growth.

So to me, those are the top two.

Now we have to make a decision, and uh I could of course just try to go across the table and see if we find consensus, or if someone wants oh, please, counselor.

Well, I I just would like to share just a couple more comments.

You know, tonight while Mike did impress me um with his answers at the interview.

I think the standout candidate, honestly, was Kyle.

Kyle is uh a very impressive candidate.

Um though maybe I was more impressed by Mike's responses uh to the questions tonight.

Kyle's got the the breadth of knowledge, the the experience, the the public support.

We we received a ton of public comments.

You all don't know this, but we received many emails um throughout the the last couple of weeks.

The overwhelming majority of them were in support of Kyle.

And uh, you know, the election was just here.

It isn't a critical deciding factor, but it's I think it's relevant.

And you know, I am swayed by the election, and in particular, because Mayor Mangat announced his resignation on October 24th, uh, you know, like a week or more before the election.

So when the voters went to the to the polls, they actually knew there was gonna be five five uh vacancies uh to fill.

And so I think the voters also spoke.

So you know, with that, I'd like to make a motion uh to appoint Kyle for this vacancy.

Second we have a motion and a second.

Uh any further discussion.

No further discussion.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, say no?

No.

That motion passes five to one.

Congratulations to Mr.

Bolier.

Well, meeting adjourned.