Today's March 17th, 2026, and the City Council meeting will come to order.

We'll begin with a pledge of allegiance.

Clerk back.

Could we please get a roll call?

Mayor Tapia Vega.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes.

Good evening.

Councillor Bolier.

Good evening.

Counselor Friedland.

Good evening.

Counselor Gallegos.

Good evening.

Councillor Gianola.

Here.

And Councillor Jensen.

Here, Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

We'll begin tonight's meeting with uh public input.

For anyone who wishes to speak, please fill out one of the speaker request forms you can find in the back through the glass stores.

Please hand that over to our uh city clerk.

When you come up to speak, please just state your name and address for the record, and you will have five minutes to speak.

In front of you on the podium, there's a little clock that tells you just how much time you have left.

Uh just remember to be respectful and stay under the five minutes so the speakers after you can get the same amount of time.

And for anyone who isn't here but still wishes to speak, you can call in.

That phone number is on our website.

With that, we'll begin tonight with Roy Johnson.

Hello again.

I'll do my best to keep it under ten minutes tonight.

Um it is my understanding at the council workshop next week.

You'll be discussing possible ballot questions.

And I know there's no public input at the workshop, so I'd like to make the suggestion here.

I suggest you consider a ballot question regarding section 5.7 of city charter filling vacancies in elective offices.

Um that you allow the voters to change this to state their vacancies, or I put this in the ballot.

And if that list is exhausted, then have canceled for the vacancies.

So I'm Martha Creati Kern, thanks.

Um co-creates programs with for and by Latino folks who live in mobile home parks.

I'm especially honored tonight to have been asked by Elena Claver, some of you may know her to speak.

She couldn't be here in support of having the plaque with names in the Lafayette cemetery that Frank Archuletta has researched, and that's so critical for the history of our city.

So now you just have to pretend that I'm Elena.

Elena is a federally certified simultaneous English-Spanish interpreter, a radio co-host for KGNU radio, a singer-songwriter, and a community activist.

And now I'm I'm Elena speaking.

I am speaking as a person who was present in 1992 when a historical injustice was corrected at the Lafayette Cemetery.

At that time, the His Historical Society, in collaboration with the United Mine Workers, led by Lafayette residents, Gary Cox, installed a headstone in the cemetery that named the six miners killed at the Columbine strike, who were originally buried with no names.

At that time, I, Elena, sang songs of World War I organizer Joe Hill, and some of Joe Hill's ashes were spread on the headstone.

So there's precedent for correcting historical injustices here in our town.

Today I urge you to install a marker with the names of the 200 Lafayette residents whose names were erased from the historical record due to prejudice against the Latino and Catholic residents of Lafayette in the early 20th century.

From 1901 until the 1950s, people who were not white Anglo Saxon Protestants were buried in a part of the Lafayette Cemetery and were not recognized.

But thanks to the work of Frank Archuletta, and in consultation with descendants of Lafayette families denied their due respect in those times.

We now know the names of all of those 200 people buried there.

The QR code is insufficient, as not everyone has a smartphone, and the Lafayette families deserve to have their loved ones named on a marker.

We can't change the injustices and racism of the past, but we can make things right by recognizing the past and taking positive steps so that respect and healing are part of our community.

We shouldn't be continuing the historical erasure of our community's Latino heritage.

Rather, we should be working to correct past injustices by actions such as installing a marker with their names.

Thank you very much, Elena Claver.

And I just want to say thank you so much for listening, and I absolutely second what Elena has written.

And I really hope that this because being able to see names of humans instead of a QR code, there is no comparison.

So I just really hope that you can do this.

Thank you so much.