Um welcome to the City Council workshop for May twenty sixth, twenty twenty six.

Uh we have a few agenda items tonight, and we also will have Councillor Giannola.

He did text me, he's a few minutes late, but he should be here shortly.

Um we'll get right into it.

Uh our first um presentation of the night is our communications and engagement program overview, and I think a presentation of our newest staff member, which we're very very excited about.

Uh, I will turn it over to our deputy city manager.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

Thank you.

Um, this evening we're excited to talk about the City of Lafayette communications.

Um, communications is really something that's critical for the organization, um, for the community and connecting our community members to all the work that we do here at the City of Lafayette.

So we're gonna spend some time this evening um going through an overview of the city's communication program and the approach, and also to introduce our new communications director.

The agenda for this evening is to talk about the approach and our framework around communications.

We'll talk a little bit about how we communicate, engage and listen, including the channels we use, the tools and our approaches, and then we'll delve into net next steps and questions.

So we'll kick it off with a little bit more about our communications and approach and framework, and starting with an introduction to our new communications director, Aaron Frazier.

We're excited to have Erin here this evening.

Today is her very first day.

So she's just kind of having her initiation here this evening with council and a full day today with introductions and just kind of getting settled and getting to start to know the organization.

So we're really excited to have Erin here.

She went through a highly competitive search here with over 158 competitive candidates.

She brings more than 20 years of communications experience with CU Boulder.

Most recently served as the assistant vice chancellor for constituent engagement and has a lot of other experience in various different communication roles with the CU.

She's got a deep knowledge of the Lafayette community and a lot of experience with the Lafayette community as well and is a Lafayette president.

So she's just on the road.

So we're really excited to have her here.

Welcome, Erin, and I'd love to have you share a little bit more about yourself.

Oh, thank you so much.

And I'm very, very excited to be here.

As I said during the interview process, I think it's a real honor to get to serve the city that I love so much.

I moved here in 1999, started volunteering almost right away when I got here, served on LOSAC for many years, have volunteered in many capacities in the community.

I've had a range of experience from community engagement to internal communications to emergency communications at CU.

So I'm excited to build on the great program and really get to know the city better from the inside as well.

Thanks.

All right.

Okay, and I would like to talk about the communications team.

We have a small but mighty communications team, and I would be remiss if I didn't start by thanking Natalie Miller, our communications manager.

She has been serving as an interim communications director and has done an excellent job covering with a lean crew over the past six months as an interim community communications director, and there's been a lot going on during this time.

Everything from some of the top issues we've had throughout the winter with the PSPS.

You might have already forgotten about those, but right into drought.

A lot of issues going on, capital projects, working on the capital bond project all through last year.

And so Natalie and Sebastian have really been keeping things going, and we're really grateful for all the work that they've done.

So thanks very much.

A little bit about our communications team.

Well, we have a small team in the communications department.

We have a communications manager and bilingual communications coordinator here with Erin.

And we also have a citywide communications team, which is comprised of the communications experts and staff that work within the departments across the organization to help contribute to our kind of communications bandwidth across the whole organization.

So other department heads across the organization also oversee dedicated department outreach staff, and those come in different forms, whether it's sort of more of a marketing type staff or an outreach staff, or someone who has a sort of lesser amount, a small maybe slice of their position might be dedicated to communications.

And it look it comes in different forms.

And so those folks kind of they kind of roll into the citywide communications team and all work together to create sort of what we strive to have aligned and strategic communications effort across the entire organization to have internal and external communications out to our community and here within the organization.

So I'll just say a little bit about the communications capacity across the city, and then I'll turn it over to Natalie here to talk a little bit more about the work we do.

These are some of the departments, most of the departments that we have.

What you can see is here with some of the departments and divisions.

Some of the departments have actual dedicated communication staff, and there's an asterisk there where you can see that there's dedicated communications staff.

Some of our larger departments don't actually have dedicated staff.

So they may have a little bit bits and pieces within their departments, but they don't have dedicated staff.

So for example, public works, they really rely on our central communications department to help support communications for them.

So it's it's really the communications team working with those folks who have a lot of more robust communication as well as those departments that need a little bit more support.

So I'll turn it over to Natalie to continue to talk a little bit more about the work that they do.

Thank you.

Good evening, council.

Can you hear me now?

Okay.

Here you can speak even more, Natalie.

I know some of you have been with the city for about three and a half years.

Um I'm excited to tell you about all the work that we have done.

So really we all know how important communications is, and some of our main goals are to inform, engage, and also inspire the community through clear, timely communication that really strengthen strengthens connection, trust, and collaboration.

We really want that partnership with the community and to build trust with local government.

We operate under you know these six pillars again, trust, transparency, engagement, safety, accessibility, and coordination is really key to getting our messaging out there.

And our communications philosophy, our website really serves as the official source of truth.

So it's our main hub of communications, which is why we drive people through there through a variety of channels, but that's where our alerts are, that's where the latest information and updates can be found.

That's where our event calendars are, our forums, our newsletters.

So really everything comes back to our website, but we distribute it through multiple communications channels to reach residents.

But it's we really want to drive people to the site because that's where the information we know is going to be accurate, it's consistent, it's accessible to really build that trust with the community.

Coordination across the city, so a lot of what the public sees is obviously external, but we do a lot of internal work as well through leadership and staff messaging and employee engagement, and then there's our integrated communications, um, the website and shared platforms, communications planning.

Um really we align messaging internally and externally.

So we have one voice, um, you know, one city that represents all the work that we're doing, and really sharing how people can access our information, our services, our programs.

Um these are different tools.

I'll kind of go through each one of how we communicate with the community.

Um, so we have website is our main one.

We have social media, newsletter, print, video, um, we have an engagement platform, community outreach, media relations, constituent inquiries, and then emergency communications.

So the City of Lafayette website, it's really our full service accessible website.

So this is where you're gonna get access to all the city departments, services, programs, um, business operations, government functions, and our projects.

And again, it's a trusted source of accurate information, um, everything related to the city, so agendas, meeting informations, um, meeting minutes, news alerts.

Um, you know, this is where there's misinformation can spread really quickly.

So if we're driving everybody back to the website, we know it's gonna be accurate and they're gonna get the information that they need.

Um, it also supports ADA requirements and public records accessibility.

So just kind of wanted to give a snapshot of the website and to show you how heavily utilized it is by residents.

Um so these are some of our metrics from 2025.

But we have different ways the community can get in touch with us, ask questions, report problems or concerns.

So we have our request tracker, and we also have contact us, and we're gonna kind of get into that more during the presentation about how those are routed and how we respond.

But you can see from the request tracker, we had 809 requests last year that came in, and that's for a variety of different departments that it went to, but could be anything from a pothole to noise complaints, um, just general inquiries.

So it was a little down from last year, but the request tracker is always active and we're always getting information through there.

Um our website had 1.6 million page views.

Um, so a lot of people are accessing the site.

You can see to the left-hand corner, these are some of the top pages that people are going to.

So obviously, our homepage is the most viewed.

So that's where we put all our important information, um, information we want people to easily find.

Um, the library is uh comes in second, 37,000 um page views, and then our news alerts, our news updates.

We're always wanting people to subscribe to those because that's where relevant, timely, important information is distributed.

So that has 29,000 views, and then people use our search bar a lot, right?

Instead of navigating through the website, they rely on the search, so we really you know focus in on SEO and making things easy to find.

So if they do search, they're easy, they're easily able to find the information.

Um, recreation also gets a lot of traction, so that has 18,000 views.

Um for contact us, we usually get about 20 to 30 emails daily.

So, you know, that adds up quickly, and those again are similar to request tracker.

That's a variety of inquiries that are coming in, topics, um, questions, comments, um, and that's something the communications department monitors daily.

Um, and we'll kind of go through the process of how we respond to that later, but um very high volume for a small team that we're getting information to.

Um we also record and live stream a lot of our meetings.

So um we had our Capital Bond last year, um, candidate forums, so you know, we had 2,593 uh views for this, so that was a 61% increase from last year.

And really, we're trying to make it accessible so people who aren't able to come in person or people who might be intimidated to come in, that they can still access the information and participate um online.

We also track our top searches, so what are people searching for on the website?

Um pickleball is always number one, um, it's very popular, and then depending on the time of year.

So I think you know, the curbside leaf and branch pickup was uh keyword search that people search for, um zoning, historic preservation board.

So we do monitor this to see if the same searches are coming up repeatedly, then we adjust the information on the website so people can find what they need.

What is the New York Times remote access?

Um that's for the library, so people can read New York Times articles for free.

So they have access to that, so they do a search in there.

Yeah, it's pretty great.

Resource I didn't know that.

It's great.

Um, these are all the social media platforms that we're on.

Um we use each of them for different audiences and purposes.

Um, our main one is Facebook, um, and then we're really trying to grow Instagram.

So to the right is just a snapshot of our followers and also engagement.

We track um the content that we post and how it's performing and what our residents responding to, um, what questions do they have.

We are um on X and we use that for real-time updates.

Uh, the media still uses X a lot, so if there's any like critical emergencies or um news that we have to get out um quickly, uh, they follow that, so we we are active on that channel during those times.

Um we're trying to elevate LinkedIn and just kind of give an organizational voice on you know, leadership stories.

Obviously, this is what we use for um our job postings as well, and then just professional updates and stories.

Uh next door is another platform we used.

Um it's pretty focused, um, hyperlocal communication, um, you know, neighborhood level engagement, but we know that the that information is shared with neighbors, so we do um utilize that and YouTube.

Um, we post all of the all our uh videos there and they're all recorded and captioned, and people can watch that in a variety of languages as well.

So again, just making it really easy and accessible to access the information.

Um this is uh again a snapshot of our social media metrics, um, and they help us evaluate engagement and what's effective and what's working.

So here is um our total followers for all our platforms.

So we have 42,000 out of all those platforms I just showed on the previously previous slide.

Um so we're up 10% from last year, so we are growing.

Um our impressions are up, so that's how many times people are seeing our content.

Um we had a 39% increase from previous year, and then engagement.

Engagement's always a little tricky because we're competing with a lot of other um content.

Um, you know, people are getting inundated with so much information, so um, we're really happy to see our engagement has increased from 12%.

And then here are just some of the top performing posts that we had.

Um so our sister city um perform really well.

Anything community-based gets a lot of traction.

So that was a mural um that a local artist painted on one of our trails, and then we have our Santa and Sirens event where you know the community can track where Santa's traveling in their neighborhood.

Um so any community-based post usually risk uh react well.

And now I'm gonna turn it over to Sebastian to talk about um our Spanish outreach.

Um a couple of years ago, we started translating some documents uh city agendas on other documents.

Um after we uh saw the it's been like a hard to reach the Spanish community, we decide to create uh a specific channel dedicated for DAM.

Uh a year ago, we launched Somos LaPayette on dedicated uh Instagram channel, just uh full in Spanish, and we decide to create these not to translate what we are doing in other platforms, but uh to create uh original content um specific for the Spanish community.

We base these on four pillars.

They are community highlights, educational content, and cultural celebration and interactive initiatives.

And what we are trying with somos Lafayette is uh meet the community uh there.

We are trying to speak this not just the same language, the same culture, the same food.

Uh it's not just about the Spanish, it's about a lot of other things.

So we are being working with these, and uh the next slide is the video, they introduce uh this campaign on this channel.

Somos un acento, una melodía in cada palabra.

Somos un sabor, el sazon que da vida cada plata.

Somos alegrios, una sonrisa que ilumina cada rincón.

Somos baile, el ritmo que nunca se detiene.

Somos parte de ti, pero también daya.

Somos más que una bandera.

Somos una comunidad.

Somos la conexión entre generaciones.

Somos tú.

Somos la falla.

Somos la falleta.

Somos la fiesta.

Somos la fiat.

So this is just a little video to introduce the campaign and the highlight some of the staff and our team that speaks Spanish and help to build this.

Moving with the next part, the city brand guidelines.

We decide in the beginning of this year to update the brand guidelines in city to trying to unify what we've been doing.

So we uh been working on these, and this is an internal tool that we create where everyone can find all the tools that they need and in other departments to speak the same language, know how the brand is talk, the colors, logos, and more, and uh be aligned on be all together in the same page.

Uh also we create these to try and help other departments because we know the some of the departments don't have uh dedicated people for design or for create things for social media.

So in this platform have they they will have some tools that help to create these type of content and uh still looking like part of the city and with the brand identity.

Um here on the next couple of slides is uh just a snapshot of some of the communications collateral that we have.

So we have our monthly printed and digital newsletter, um, the connection, and that's translated into Spanish as well.

And about 6,000 of those are mailed to households directly through their utility bills, and people can also receive them online if they prefer.

Um we also do direct mail through postcards.

A lot of times when we're doing outreach, um we send them directly to residents, um we get the best participation rate that way, and again we translate as much as we can, and we also want to offer non-digital options.

We know we have an older community who prefer print, they want something tangible, they want something they can easily reference, and so having the connection printed um makes that available, and then we have our strategic plans that are available.

Um that's just a little some of the collateral that we create.

We also have a digital community engagement platform called Lafayette Listens.

Um so really it's a centralized platform for two-way community engagement, and it's an opportunity for residents to provide feedback, ask questions, and they can follow the projects that they are interested in and get the information delivered directly to them.

So they can subscribe to the pocket park or the land use code, and then when there's uh information updates, um, we email them directly, and then they can engage with a survey or ask questions.

Um but really it's an opportunity to participate in the decision making process and to take them along so they can kind of understand some of the behind the scenes work that we do and stay connected to us as well.

In addition to digital engagement, we have community listening and engagement, so in-person engagement.

So we offer facility tours, we have neighborhood specific meetings, we have open houses, we participate in outreach booths, you know, for instance, Art Night Out, we have the chat with council, but we also do other outreach booths with partnership organizations, schools, really trying to again meet the community where they are already at, and we already know the audience is built in.

We have workshops and topic-based discussions where we have listening sessions, focus groups, educational classes, and then again working closely with our community partners.

We rely on them.

So when we want information shared, we'll send it to their distribution lists and work with their groups and make presentations to reach people that may not be visiting us directly.

And then we have the formal public process with our boards and committees, obviously public comment, and then live streaming again, meetings to make it really accessible for the community to stay engaged and get involved.

We're really trying to expand our outreach.

So we know video responds really well.

People's um you know, attention spans are getting shorter, so we've got to get them quickly, so we know we can do that with video.

Um so some of the tools we've been exploring was like direct messaging.

So this is one from our mayor that we reached out with his picture and his voice, directly text message to get um people to sign up for the news flashes and updates.

Um, we're also trying to give more humanize the city a bit, and who are the people behind the city.

Um kind of employee spotlights and the work that they do.

So that's a new feature we've been doing for the past several months.

Um this is Eddie, our water ambassador.

He's been really helpful to you know, break down complex topics that people might not understand, um, make it recognizable in a fun, engaging way.

And then we really want to start sharing more community stories, so like user-generated content where they're um sharing their stories, hopefully inspiring others to get involved and engage, um, and then just different campaign-based engagement and then as well as location messaging too.

So if people are in a certain area and we have an update that we want to get to them, that um it'll kind of find them and send it directly to them.

Um, so media relations and public information is really important.

Um, we have a hometown weekly reporter that we work pretty closely with.

Um she's very engaged in Lafayette, so she's you know, writing stories frequently, so we're responding to her quickly, accurately, we're coordinating with other departments, we're getting experts involved who know the information, and then we also it's helpful to have a third party tell our story as well.

Um we monitor the coverage and then we respond as needed with our public safety messaging.

We work really closely with police, fire, and public works.

Um, so again, with the power shutoffs, we were providing timely updates, we were telling people how to prepare for the shutoffs, what to do afterwards, um, and we expect, you know, in the summertime we'll have a lot of the more of these coming.

So we're really trying to get people to sign up.

So when we are trying to reach them and get them information, they're already on our list.

We also monitor this to see like what's the recurring themes and questions and community topics that are being discussed.

Um, so although we don't necessarily engage in community groups like uh Lafayette Rocks, we do you know, monitor that to see what the community is talking about, um, how they're feeling about things, um, and that helps us adapt our content as well.

Uh, digital accessibility is really key.

So we're compliant with state and federal requirements through the city's accessibility plan that is posted on our website, gets updated annually, and really um, even though it's required by law, we are really doing it to ensure equitable access to information and services.

Um the way that we did this was a citywide employee training program on digital accessibility.

A lot of people weren't familiar with that with that when it first came out, so we implemented accessibility champions from each department to kind of um help serve as a resource, answer questions for other staff who aren't directly involved with the communications but do create digital materials that are posted on our website.

And we stay informed and work really closely with our legal team to make sure we're up to date on those.

Okay.

Um we're gonna shift a little bit and talk around engagement in terms of community feedback and inquiries.

Um so Natalie at the beginning talked a little bit about some of the tools that we have.

Um we have a couple of um, if you go to our webpage, you'll see that there's a lot of different ways that the community can provide feedback.

We have our report a problem or service request, that's the request tracker, and that's where the community can provide a specific problem that they've observed or identified and put in kind of a service request like code compliance, something around public works, something around parks, um, police waste collection, something like that.

And that's a central coordination point between residents in the departments, and it um it's really for kind of transparency and responsiveness, and it goes directly to that specific team or department, and they can kind of get a work order and be able to immediately respond and um address the issue.

And we also have a contact us, and the contact us also goes to a specific kind of department or to city council.

And so we've got those two sort of buckets, it comes in, it goes to department inquiries or council emails, and um it gives it it kind of comes in and requires a little more vetting because sometimes we'll get things that could be more of a request tracker issue, like the sprinklers are on on XPARC and they've been on all night, and so um you know, we'll get those and we'll make sure that that's like immediately we'll you know call someone at parks and make sure someone goes and shuts it off immediately.

Others might resolve a little bit more either investigation.

So we wanted to talk a little bit specifically about contact us, um, just to it's a question that has come up from from council, so we wanted to talk a little bit about the process around the community inquiry responses.

Um so through that process, an inquiry or request comes in, and there's again kind of those two categories.

So we have an inquiry or request that comes into department or staff, and it'll typically be they'll check a box.

Sometimes people check multiple boxes, so they might say it always goes to communications, so communications will always get these.

So when Natalie said they get we get 30 to 40 a day, she literally was counting kind of how many come through their box, and then other staff might get five or you know, 10 or whatever.

So it'll go through department to staff, and then you all also will get some.

And sometimes they'll check parks and then they'll check you, and then it'll go to communications.

So it just depends.

You might get copied on some of those.

But we typically we will typically respond, you know, staff will respond to all of those and resolve the issues.

So it'll go to either Melissa's team or it'll go to whatever team is appropriate and we'll resolve the issue.

And we um we sometimes will respond back if if council is copied on that that you know it's been it's been resolved.

Um, but know that those are always addressed by the staff when those happen.

We address the issue, respond directly to them, and I think you'll see that if we respond to them directly, we usually send you back and say this is what we said to this person about this because we want you for awareness to know kind of what the response is so you kind of know how we're addressing the issue and you have that level of awareness around that for the inquiries that come into council, um so typically if it's a I'm gonna go to the bottom first.

If it's or I'm sorry, I'm gonna go to the center center first.

If it's a request of a council member or a council, we typically don't respond.

So if they say, Hey, I met you at Art Night Out, can you send me that?

You know, we don't we don't we don't respond to any of those.

It's a if it's a council member um respond or request.

Um if it's an opinion or a statement, like I don't I don't like what you did, or I love that you're doing this, we don't respond, staff doesn't respond to those.

Um if there's a request for clarification, um, like I heard that this is gonna be coming up on planning commission, um, and can you tell me more about when this is coming up?

Then staff will usually respond and say, This is when this item's coming up, here's a link to it, or we'll provide that type of information.

But if it's if it's more of they want to know from you what your thoughts are, what your opinion is, it's really kind of a council request.

So that's if you if you get a direct email and you want staff to help, we're always happy to provide more information.

So if there's something that you get a question about, like, can you tell me more about what's happening at you know a certain park?

We're happy to help you out.

Just let us know if you want more information about the issue or something we can help you out with that.

So I know we went through this at I think on at during the onboarding, but um we want to just make sure you knew kind of when we were when staff is responding and when we're not, and we're we're if you have questions, just just ask us if we're gonna respond.

But just wanted to kind of let you know how we're handling those different buckets.

I will note too every person gets a city response that says thank you for your email, we've received it.

So even if it isn't a direct response to the particular question.

So I think everybody gets a that response.

Can I ask a question about that?

Yeah.

When it goes to all the council members, and it is an inquiry of some kind.

I don't know who whether it's you or council, because it it may not have been sent to you staff, but you look at it anyway, and if it's a like when is this coming up before council kind of question, you respond, or if it wasn't sent to you, uh, how does that work?

We um we have visibility on everything that goes to council.

So does communications.

We will only respond if it's an informational, like what is there a meeting, what time is the meeting, if it's a policy question about, you know, have you thought about minimum wage, or have you thought about you know doing whatever X question, have you thought about you know, this issue?

That's a question for council.

They're asking you if that's something you want to talk about, or you know, it's not really a process or clarifying question, then you guys will respond.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, good evening, council.

I wanted to just briefly touch on two tools that are becoming available to staff to support some communications, specifically some engagement efforts.

The first is our citywide engagement framework.

We touched on this a bit at your uh March workshop as we were reporting out on your retrieve priorities as communication and engagement was one of your four priority areas.

Um so we at that time were mentioning this engagement framework that was just getting wrapped up.

It is officially complete and available to staff to utilize internally.

And so this was a uh tool or a um document that was created by staff for staff to really help kind of provide a consistent approach to engagement across the organization.

So it's not a prescriptive if you are doing X type of project, you need to do Y type of engagement, but instead it is kind of a um uh collaborative document that was put together to provide a suite of tools that can outline and really helps help uh make sure that staff are developing and utilizing informed engagement processes to meet specific audiences and then think through a consistent set of steps with uh while planning their engagement efforts.

And so, with this, we're really hoping that and optimistic that we will see improved effectiveness with our communications efforts, again, because people are using kind of the um tried and uh tested uh tools and processes from across the organization.

It's also a very flexible and adaptable tool.

So again, it's not prescriptive, but instead we'll say if you're trying to reach uh X audience here some considerations and some tools that you can use to do so here with that.

Here are some constraints and things that you might want to consider to make sure that we're getting the best reach of those tools.

And so ultimately, once this is up and running and utilized across the organization, we're really um likely gonna see less time spent on planning engagement and more time spent on doing the engagement.

So we're really excited to see this offer a consistent approach to engagement across our organization.

And next I want to touch on the inclusive community building lens.

This is not a communication specific tool, but it does kind of dovetail nicely with some of this work that we're discussing tonight, as well as the engagement framework that I just mentioned.

Um so this is what was referred to as the equity lens through our IDA strategic plan process for those who have been part of those updates.

Um really the this this tool was developed with our consultant team and uh staff representatives from across the organization as well as representatives from the human rights board and the older adults board to create a tool that uh the users can use to run any current program or initiative or uh a future kind of uh program as one is planning that program.

And so it's it's really a set of considerations, it's not a quantitative score document that you kind of pass or fail in terms of inclusivity and accessibility, but instead it's intended to offer considerations across four different domains, which are listed here on the screen.

There was quite a bit more information in your packet about this, but just to summarize the lens is broken across four different domains.

The first is the policy domain, so really looking at uh who can reach or benefit from an opportunity either that we're assessing or one that we're trying to build, and that's really looking also at the rules, kind of procedures and systems that are in place as well as any barriers related to those.

Uh there's a program domain looking at the availability, the quality and the design of specific programs or services at the city.

Um we also have a progress domain where we can look at and identify how we would measure impact of a specific initiative, um, identify where we might uh what learning opportunities come from that, and then how we can improve upon outcomes.

And then finally, we have a people domain, and this is probably the most applicable to the communications discussion this evening.

But this is really looking at and ensuring that diverse voices are reflected in decision making and service delivery, as well as making sure that vulnerable populations are accounted for, and I will say even more specifically a vulnerable populations as well as the intended audience or intended service recipients as we're talking through perhaps a communications effort, identifying we're trying to reach a specific audience, really using this as a way to make sure that we're considering as many angles as possible that a communications effort is reaching that intended audience.

So with that, I will turn it over to Natalie.

Um recently our starting last year, we had um our first intern that we got from CU Boulder, and this year we have three new interns.

Um, two of them actually started today.

There's the thing on the back right here.

Um so we have Lizzie, Erin, and Gabrielle.

Um they're all communications majors.

Um, really excited to have them join us because um again, we're a very small team, so this is building our capacity.

Um, you know, they have probably some fresh innovative ideas that they're learning in school, and really just um getting that hands-on experience and helping develop future public sector communicators.

Um, so really excited to have them join us this year.

Um so with all the information, really what we're trying to do is build a more connected Lafayette.

Um, we have a comprehensive and proactive approach.

Um, again, trying to meet residents where they are.

We use multiple channels to reach them, print, digital in person, direct, two-way communication, and also layered communication.

We know, you know, sometimes somebody hears it once, maybe twice, five to seven times it resonates.

Um, so we really layer that communication so we ensure they're getting um what they need and getting correct information and coordinating, building standards and support because we really want to be provide clarity, accessibility, equity, and the big one is trust within our community.

All right, thanks, Natalie and Sebastian, and uh thanks for the time tonight with just want to talk a little bit about next steps with our new communications director and the department having kind of an opportunity with new leadership to work together to onboard Director Frazier and really have a chance to look at take a holistic look at our communications and marketing strategies and our tools and our partnerships and resources.

Um we're looking forward to uh kind of identifying our strengths and gaps and opportunities and looking at sort of the future needs of the city departments and our current um resources and current needs.

We've had a lot of shifts across the departments with the reorganization of community services and kind of the restructuring of a lot of the um resources within those teams too, and so there's um really some great opportunities there, and with those being our outward-facing departments too, it's gonna be a great chance to look at um kind of what the needs are within those departments as well as across the whole organization, and just kind of assess the community's reflections on the city's communications and co-create together with our communications partners our forward-looking and sustainable and measurable strategy for city communications.

So we're excited to embark on that work together and happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much.

Questions from council.

Counselor Jensen.

I have to go back and look at the slides.

Sorry.

One question I had about the website is you have really good metrics that tell us data-driven things.

But what I was wondering, I mean, sometimes when I'm looking for something on a website and I can't find it easily, I just give up and call, right?

Um, there weren't any metrics on the ease of use of the website and whether people find what they're looking for, which is qualitative, not quantitative.

But it if if especially if our major strategy is drive everything to the website, it'd be really good if we had some evaluation of whether people are finding what they're looking for.

And I have to tell you more than once I've tried to find something and couldn't find it.

Um I can't remember what those things were off the top of my head right now.

But um, so that's just ease of use, you know, and is it logical and rational and flows from one thing to the other?

So that would be one thing.

And then I think during the campaign, some of us, not me, uh found that there was a lot of buzz about Lafayette on Reddit.

I know I know uh Kyle or Counselor Bullier mentioned that.

And just like next door, I'm not sure we want to be posting on Reddit, but it is a way like I think I heard something like, oh, Lafayette's growing by leaps and bounds, you know, and something like also the counselor is in the pocket of the developer, and uh trends that you don't want to see, you know, misinformation that would help guide, you know, what we're talking about uh in our public facing stuff.

So there was a uh a subreddit that uh counselor bullier mentioned on Lafayette specifically, um, and so I would encourage you to watch it, not post on it necessarily, but uh watch it, and then I just looked at Lafayette Listens, and there isn't a Spanish section on Lafayette listens, and that seems to me that be if we're driving everybody to that as our place for where you you know give input to the city, uh it seems to me we should have that Spanish.

Um then one other big thing, one of the things in the land use code, and any time we do engagement on land use, we get a lot of feedback from property owners.

But we might be trying to create more for sale rental or condos or whatever, which would benefit renters, but they're not showing up.

Um and it's maybe because they're more transitory, they might not have lived here as long, they don't have the mechanisms in place yet to know where to find things, you know.

But cultivating a renter's list, and I know it's gonna go out of date as you know quickly, but when we have land use things, I would be really good if we were not only listening to the people who are the haves in terms of owning property, and that we'd also be looking at people who might one day love to own property but can't do it right now, and so trying to figure out a renter's group uh of some kind, you know, getting lists at Art Night Out or you know, getting people to sign up, uh I think would be really helpful to us on council.

We've talked about how we're missing the renter's perspective a lot of times.

So I think that would be helpful.

And then I will last question.

I wondered in the outreach to the Spanish community, do you have trouble getting people who want to give you their name, given what's going on nationally right now?

And I was just uh, and if that it's hampers their communications in the Spanish speaking world right now.

Yes, it is right now.

It's uh not just right now, it's been hard since I don't know, a couple years ago, to trust from the Spanish community to the government.

So it's a lot of fear around, and that's what we face every day because uh people don't want to connect on people, people it's right.

And we do rely on like our cultural brokers and you know, people they already trust in the community, and we give information to them and they share it sometimes when it's not directly from the city, they listen a little bit more.

Um that is another reason why we have two methods of folks to contact us, um, contact us.

People don't, you know, they do need an email address, but they don't need to set up an account with any information.

Request tracker, it does require them to put their name and some other information that they might not be comfortable sharing.

Um so you know, we're also exploring WhatsApp, we know um the Hispanic population uses that.

Um, so we're just trying new ways to reach them, but yes, it is a challenge.

I just want to um I really appreciate the comments and feedback, and um I want to comment on something that was said earlier.

I think you might have said it, Councilor Jensen, about um having a fact sheet or something with common, you know, issues that we're facing, and then having a little bit more um information about it, which I think I appreciate that because um I think council members are also an important part of our communication, and when you mention things like Reddit, and if council members, if that's a place where you currently are and see misinformation, if we can equip you with the factual information that you need to actually, you know, get that right information out there and we can provide that to you.

I think you know, we're happy to provide that that kind of information because I think you all are also an important part of the communication strategy as you know, leaders in the community and as you know, a part of the city as an extension of the city as council members and also respected members of you know the city and community.

So any way in which you think of ways that we can support you with that, we're happy to do that as well.

Councilor Ferdland.

Well, I'll start by saying that I can't help on Reddit, haven't been on there for a decade.

So don't repress your login.

Um but God bless you for going on there if you are and good luck.

Um I have a question about metrics.

So all the numbers you shared are great.

Um, but I'm wondering like do we have goals in terms of metrics?

And I guess I'm specifically kind of thinking, I remember I'm remembering back to the climate action plan outreach that was done.

It was super robust.

It was awesome.

Like I wonder if when we're doing things like that, do we set like we want to have this many in-person touches, we want to have this many social media mentions or whatever metric.

Do we sort of set those metrics and then how do we do like in meeting them?

Like, are we how are we doing?

Yeah, we set overall goals.

So we have a communications plan and strategy that we update annually, um, and then we also base it on each different campaign or topic.

Um, so for like the capital bond, we had a whole outreach strategy, and we wanted this many in-person meetings, we wanted this many much engagement, so we do set goals for them, and then we monitor that, adjust as needed, um, but it it kind of varies by topic, but we do set goals every year.

Can you share an example of where we like we had to like switch midstream because we weren't meeting our goals?

Do we have any examples recently where we changed and then maybe did better?

I don't know if off the top of my head.

I know with the Lafayette Listens, um, sometimes we've opened it up to like the community can kind of respond to each other and ask questions.

And so when we've seen again, like when we're monitoring the searches or where we're seeing all the contact us and we're seeing the same questions, like for instance, about like the airport, okay, then that tells us the community's really interested and involved.

So then we put it on their home page.

We're like, they can't find this information, people are asking the same questions, so we made that adjustment, and so we had a news flash, and so now we're updating it with every new update so people can see past what's done and then kind of where we're currently at.

So they kind of taking them along because some are you know, been in it since the start, some are just joining and learning about it.

Um so that's one example.

But um Do you want to that's helpful?

We tested a new we've been testing this, these um telephone tools like the telephone town hall type tools, and we haven't gotten the metrics that we that we had had desired, and so we kind of set up targets for those metrics.

And so we're looking at shifting to another, is it a different provider, or can you say more about that?

I can't remember if it was a different.

Yeah, we're just looking at, you know, there's so many different um platforms and ways to communicate with people.

So we've tried one way, we've seen that it wasn't performing well, so now we're exploring others.

Um, you know, we have had comments about the website, and it's not easy to navigate.

So we want to do communications audit, we want to do some testing with community groups and see, you know, if you go to find this, how long does it take you?

Are you able to find it?

If you're not, then we need to do some readjusting.

Um, so we're you know, constantly evolving and exploring and listening and adjusting as necessary.

Um so you know, we're doing more like uh targeted communication too.

So, you know, there is an instance um, you know, when they're the the fire spread and people were like, I'm not receiving the bo alert because they were just outside um the impact area, so we're trying to get people to sign up on vocal and to educate them on how to be um communicated with that.

Do you want to receive all updates or do you just want to receive it when it's impacting you directly?

So a lot of it is that like educational um piece of how to use the tools that are in place.

Um there's a lot, so yeah, um and everybody's in different places now, too.

You know, it's like it's not just one newspaper that everybody reads every day.

It's very diffuse.

It's very it's changed a lot.

Um I also have a question around.

So I think you shared a lot with us of like these are imperfect words that I'm gonna use to describe this, but like the how we communicate with people.

This channel, this channel, this channel.

Uh I'm curious how much like involvement should there be, or do you currently have now around like helping departments craft their communication that then goes out over the channels?

Like how much uh interface is there before the message goes out, how much should there be?

Um, and sort of more philosophical, like um, how do we do that successfully?

Crafting messages.

Yeah, we have uh an outreach plan that we utilize with all of our departments, and it kind of takes them through step by step of like why are we communicating this?

Who are we communicating with this, what channels are we going to use and communications will receive that and kind of offer our like insight or if we have questions.

Um we co-collaborate with other departments, so if we see a topic that, oh, it would be really good to get arts input on this because they're really connected to this audience that will bring them into the into the discussion.

Um so we work really collaboratively.

Um there's also a lot of communication to get out there, but we really have um we have like our talking points and things that training that we do with our communications team.

So we work pretty closely with all our departments and liaisons.

Good.

Thank you.

I will say too, I think some of the things that we find are the most challenging are the things that are the most technical.

And so we've tried different ways.

I know you guys worked uh closely with transportation to create more of a storyboard, so we're not just saying, well, we'll look at them to MTP that's however many pages long, and instead trying to make it into an interactive thing.

And so slowly but surely we could get people more accustomed to that too.

But I find the technical pieces are the ones where we really kind of struggle in that area.

Testing at the wastewater treatment plate.

Well, you might be able to understand that.

But yes.

So those are different areas that I know communications have really explored.

So I mean, even the the drought messaging and you know, just the layers, the layers around that and the city's use of water and you know the different departments use of water and the residents' use of water and yeah, the phases and all those pieces.

Yeah, there's always work to do.

Well, thank you for the answers, and thank you so much for the presentation, everybody.

Really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Great.

Any other members?

Councillor General.

Yeah, just a couple hopefully quick questions.

Um you talked a little bit about the interface with other departments and their communications.

I would love to hear just a little bit more about the interface with um public safety in particular, because I think that's a really important communication uh between the community and the city.

So just love to hear a little bit more about the role that your department plays with respect to the public safety uh communications.

Um so we meet regularly with all the departments, so um, fire and police being one of that.

So when they, you know, for instance, police shared that they really wanted to get more community involvement, so they wanted to implement these cop talks, and you know, they're gonna do it with e-bikes and flock cameras.

Um so we're building um kind of an emergency.

We have a team that we check in with during emergencies, and I think we're building that out a bit, but um it has come down to some capacity because you know, we have been just two of us for a while, um, so we're excited that Aaron is here and to expand that, but we know um working closely with those departments is gonna be critical in getting those updates out.

Yeah, and do the fire and police departments have dedicated communication staff, or is it somebody playing very multiple hats?

Multiple hats.

I mean, they they do a lot of community outreach and education and their serving is that role, but then they also kind of have their total it their whole other job that they have to do.

Yep.

And kind of on this same topic, you know, I just wonder, you know, I know there's a lot of different channels that you're communicating with the with the community through, and I wonder if there's a better alternative to X.

Feels like Twitter used to be this really great tool that you would go and get real-time information, and I feel like that has gone downhill since the change to X.

And is there I don't know the answer to it, but I wonder is there an alternative for that real-time communication that is now like a void has been created since since that transition.

I mean, there's threads that came out that was kind of serving a little bit as X, and so we got our name on there just mostly to get our name so other people wouldn't take it, and we monitor it, but we also are strategic and careful not to jump on every new platform that um might come aboard because again, once you sign on, you know, you set expectations for the community that you're gonna be responsive and updating it.

Um I don't quite know the answer to that.

We have talked with the media and they said they are on X and they use it for emergency updates and critical information, so we've kept that, but we use it less frequently, so it kind of determines like the information that we're putting out.

That's the channels we've got to do.

I feel like we're all still kind of looking for that once awesome uh interface and haven't found it yet.

Yes.

Counselor Bullion.

Thank you, Mayor.

So sorry I couldn't be there this evening, folks.

Uh welcome, Erin.

Absolutely thrilled to have you on board, and thank you to Megan, Natalie, and Sebastian for the comprehensive presentation this evening.

You know, uh reflecting on the significant public comment that we have heard recently concerning the cemetery issue.

It strikes me that there is a bit of a gap between what folks in the public are hearing and perceiving and what we in city staff and we in the council believe is going out.

And so something that strikes me sometimes our comm strategy feels a little too reactive to me.

And so recognizing it's Erin's first day and recognizing folks are doing tremendous work.

I'd love your thoughts, uh Aaron and team on how we could potentially take a more assertive posture and to more swiftly incorporate public input, you know, when it seems that what we're sending out isn't necessarily resonating with the public.

Thank you.

Over Yeah.

So yeah, a cemetery is a good example.

Um we know that it's a very sensitive topic.

Um we as staff care very deeply about that.

Um we, you know, there was misinformation being shared, which I think is why a lot of the community came out um thinking that it was on the agenda, and you know, everything was posted on our website.

We were having that information, but people weren't knowing where to access that.

So when we saw the comments that were coming in and um, you know, wanting uh a community meeting and wanting information and wanting past um presentations and agendas, we kind of instead of having them go search for the past council meeting.

So we kind of gathered all that information and we put it on a cemetery website page that was already established, but we're just updating that more frequently so that people can find everything they need in one place instead of having to search um for different things.

And um yeah, we're doing it very carefully.

Um we're listening to the community.

It's uh it's a difficult situation.

Um I hope with the community meeting, some questions will be answered and people like now know where to find that information, they know um how to access it.

So yeah, there's more we want to share on that summit.

I was waiting for the mic to come over from that direction.

Um, Counselor Boulieu, I agree that one of the largest challenges in communication is the balance between proactive and reactive, especially in community situations.

Um of the best ways to stay ahead of reactive communications is a lot of the stuff that you've heard from the team today about uh monitoring community conversations so that we can make sure that accurate information is shared.

And then I think also being adaptive to the moment.

So I really appreciate what Natalie was sharing there about how the team has adapted to the response for the cemetery and collecting information in a singular place.

Um of the things that I've been hearing from the questions today are some of the things that are interesting to me coming into the role about um content architecture and the website and how um we can help our community navigate the site and information more effectively.

And I think um I think it's very important to think about our website as that source of truth and that place that is the system of record for the community.

Um but we can use these multiple omni-channel approaches to drive people there and then provide the um the record of that communication.

Uh so looping back again to your question.

I think um reactivity is just like a hair's breadth away from proactivity.

And as we listen to the community feedback, it's going to help us um move forward.

Uh what I've done in my past work is when crafting communication strategy, um, I always end with, and then what?

So that I can be thinking about how is that going to land, how do people need to be able to react, how do people need to be able to provide feedback?

And so I think um as we move forward with communication strategies, always there's that last step and then what time.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to make sure uh counselor Bullier, did you get all your questions?

Yes, thanks, Mayor Protem.

I I think it's a great answer, very comprehensive so far.

Would love to continue to dig into this in uh in the coming weeks and months.

Um, but really appreciate the answer.

Thank you.

Um I have some questions because I've been on council way too long.

Um I'm just gonna start with welcome to the interns in the back.

I've been asking for you for a year now, and it's great to see you.

I'm wondering if we could if you're in the Department of Communication, you're used to doing this.

continue to dig into this in uh in the coming weeks and months um but really appreciate the answer thank you uh so i have some questions because i've been on council way too long um and um i i'm just gonna start with welcome to the interns in the back i've been asking for you for a year now and it's great to see you i'm wondering if we could if you're in the department of communication you're used to doing this would you mind coming up and saying something about yourself and come on can we get them a microphone yeah right here I was in the department of communication when I was at COVID okay should I just like give a um my name's Gabrielle I go to CU Boulder um I'm gonna be a senior next year so getting ready to enter the workforce um I'm majoring in strategic communication so my emphasis is in advertising and I'm minoring in business and media studies so yeah and I'm from Denver Colorado so this is how you do an elevator speech yeah hi everyone my name is Aaron Wheeler I'm born and raised in Chicago and I'm going to be a rising junior next year or next semester so I'm very excited for that I'm also a communications major with an emphasis on advertising and branding and I'm really excited for this opportunity to work with the communications department Natalie has been a really great mentor so far.

Taxi things hi I'm Lizzie Cropper I'm from Littleton Colorado I'm also a rising junior and a communications major and um I'm really excited to be working with the city and working for the city and in high school I worked a lot with student engagement and served as the vice president for my high school so I'm really excited for all the events that we have coming up and just being involved with everything here.

So thank you guys so much.

I love it this is great.

This is gonna be fantastic.

So that was number one number two is I I heard mentioned that we do have a hometown hometown weekly weekly reporter that we're that's a go-to would it be appropriate to say who that is so readers know who it's uh Julia King.

Julia Julia King Julia King Okay so for anybody who's wondering who's covering Lafayette who's got Lafayette thank you appreciate that and are I so everybody up here on council knows I'm not a huge fan of social media at all.

And I noticed that we have we have metrics for the Facebook and the others um do we do do we are we able to measure the use of Lafayette listens?

Yes.

And is it increasing decreasing is it how how does it vary um because it's by project we do analytics for each project so it is increasing as far as subscribers who are following that channel the projects that people are engaged with.

We recently expanded Lafayette Listen so we're gonna have something called hubs which are going to kind of serve as uh a mini website so I think it'll be easier to navigate than our main website um especially with uh planning so the development review process they've been working hard on we're launching that soon so people understand how development review works what projects are under review which ones are approved and kind of where they are in that process and so I think that's gonna be a great resource and tool for the community and we do have analytics on that as well so happy to provide anything you need.

I'm gonna acknowledge I I don't actually love that idea.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

I I I love that idea.

And I have spoken with individuals who have trust issues with the city.

It's just a thing it's gonna happen.

And I guess this is I'm gonna throw this to the communications new communications director.

Are there elements in I feel like we're doing a fantastic job but trust is a thing you have to earn um and I'm just wondering if it would be possible for at some point to help us understand in the future not not not tonight.

In the future to help us understand what are the things that we need to be careful about and by we I mean the city and council um to continue to build trust I constantly tell people our web page is where it's going you're going to get the best information and I also hear from a lot of people like yeah this got shanked that got shanked over there what's going on here.

So just some guidance on ways that we can share and council is in a I I would like to speak for council's in a really tough place because people ask us hard questions and none of us can speak for all of us without having done so either in a public meeting or having worked that out.

So it's really hard for us to say what what's the what's the real deal we can say like we're gonna bring this up as a council.

So that's one of the things we we we and I hope my colleagues would agree it's really challenging to be in the position of what's the council doing for this.

That was one.

The other one was um I wrote down how do we communicate difference, and that's not fair.

But I think one of the things that I see is that we are doing the we're doing what's correct.

In the we are continuing to lean into the inclusivity, diversity, and equity piece of what a city or municipality should be doing.

And again, it's along the lines of that trust.

At some point, um I would love if it's possible to communicate how what we're doing today is different from what has happened in the past.

And help people understand that we are watching these things that have not gone well in the past.

And I guess the last thing is I I I there's a thing going on right now that's floating around on the Facebook, and it's just taking on a life of its own.

Is there any way to use a machine to find out when things are taking on a life of their own?

And I I know we understand what trends people are are seeing and what they're talking about.

But is there any way to reel in this communication?

Not real, well, yeah, real reel it in when it starts getting out of hand, and we can say, like, hey, you know what?

This is not a real thing.

It's on Facebook, it's on next door, it's on I don't even I don't I don't even I've never been on Reddit, so I don't even know what happens on that.

But just some way to like latch on to the in the future, some way that we could latch on to misinformation pieces and address them appropriately.

That's it.

We we do.

I'll say we we rely on the community a lot.

So we see these conversations and sometimes they take like a life of their own.

And usually, hopefully, um what happens is that somebody who's really informed about the information and where to get it, they say, oh, actually, that's on the city website, here's the link to that, or that's actually not accurate.

Here's the correct information.

So we we're not asking the community to do that, but we do rely on them for that.

Um and again, going back to the trust, if all these you know community platforms knew that you know we're on it and going to be responding, they might be hesitant to engage in these conversations really openly and honestly.

Um, but if we kind of like open that door, then the expectation is any time someone asks a question that we will be responding, and people get upset if you respond once and then you don't respond again.

Um so again, I I know it spreads quickly, but we hope that you know we rely on the community and we are monitoring this and watching.

So if we do see same questions coming up or misinformation happening, that is when we do put out communication with accurate information.

Thank you.

Great.

Councilor Johnson.

So typically, you know, our posting of information for an upcoming council meeting is on a Thursday night or late in the day.

And our meetings are on Tuesdays.

And at least with the cemetery issue for folks, that wasn't enough time to digest the information that they received, or to contact people that they thought might be interested in it that weren't on our normal list.

I guess I would sort of throw out there wondering if on certain things that are more complicated and lengthy, is there a way to give more time?

And and I know what will probably mean for us.

Lots more people show up at council and want to talk about things and our meetings go longer.

Um but that was one of the complaints folks had was that that was not enough time to digest that information.

So I wondered if you could address that.

Yeah, often so this was a little out of the current practice that we do, but like you'll see tonight, we're doing uh update on uh building code that is gonna be coming forward in a public meeting in the future.

And so we try to workshop major topics that we think will have either interest from the community or interest for uh, you know, depend development community, whatever community we think um that are bigger policy changes and uh the cemetery just didn't go that way.

But you'll see and notice a lot of times our workshops are precursors for actual public items that are coming up in the next coming months or so to hopefully give that time as well.

So so what I'm hearing is no that's it's it's not possible to get more information, but that there is in a workshop more information that is available that might be a month before, six weeks before, but but in terms of the actual agenda for the council meeting, what we're doing is really the only way we can do it.

Yeah, I mean, I think we we have the posting deadlines and we have the schedule that is followed regularly so that the expectation is set for the community for every single item every single cycle, because you can imagine what's of critical importance to one person is not of critical importance to another.

So, you know, so that that is a standard that is set, you know, by I think our policy.

I mean, I think it's yeah, I I'd ask the clerk handbook.

In the council handbook, yeah.

So and I think that maintains consistency for you know, for everything.

So everyone can have that expectation that this is when it's posted.

Um it also gives us uh a schedule to have all of the materials provided at the same time and you know, compiled at the same time and then you know, published at the same time.

So I don't think we could do that for one thing over another because then the expectation is set that well, I think this is important.

I think this makes sense.

Right.

But the workshop is really meant to be uh a chance to have those conversations um that you might want to sort of daylight with the community, or you might want to have a conversation about before a decision comes before council, like Katie said, yeah.

Okay, I have a couple more questions.

Okay, can I can I just respond to it maybe or or add what I so like certain plans, right?

Like the wildlife plan, we put out ahead of time to get community feedback intentionally, and then it comes to council and gets posted.

So I mean, I wonder if if I'm hearing your question correctly, especially given our most recent experience.

Like I think it's not necessarily that the timing needs to change, it's more that maybe we needed to take a different route with that piece.

Do you think that's right?

Am I hearing you correctly?

Well, we didn't have a proposal, we still don't to do anything other.

I mean, well, I guess we did.

We did have a proposal to stop uh taking any more folks.

So I'm not sure I know.

I'm just trying to figure out what might be a good solution, you know, to people feeling like they didn't have enough information in a timely fashion.

Yeah, fair enough.

Sorry to divert.

Now now my train of thought you ruined it.

Um so another thing, it I think in the plan it talks about populations that are not typically heard from or um you know, identifying what those populations are in the plan, but who are the people we're trying to reach?

And I mentioned renters, but here's another example.

I know how much everyone loves the farmers market, but I have had complaints from busers about how the farmers market disrupts the bus routes.

And for people who do not have a car and for whom that is their only form of transportation, that is a significant disruption.

And I've also talked to a restaurant, just one, who is unhappy about how their parking for their restaurant is messed up by the farmers market.

But again, these are qualitative questions that programs and policies we have in place that we think are going very well, and I think everybody loves the farmers market, but are there special populations of people like that who are impacted negatively by something?

And how do we identify those groups in advance to know that we need to stay in touch with them as we go forward with things?

And so identifying those special populations.

I mean, if you're getting to work by a bus and now you have to go five, six blocks out of your way to find the bus stop that used to be there that isn't.

Uh that could be, especially if you have any mobility challenges at all, which some of the people who take the bus do.

Um I that could be a big deal that we should know about, and we might be able to find accommodations, you know, or other ways to route things or you know, during the farmers market.

But um, I'm not saying you know, dump the farmers market.

I'm not saying that, but there may be things we can do if we are doing these uh assessments of what are the populations that might be negatively impacted.

I'm gonna give it to Alex to talk about the IDA plan and the tool.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.

And uh really the intent of the tool is to prompt staff to consider things just like that and to um d answer your questions directly as I can, as I will say it takes a lot of collaboration on the staff side, and so we all work together to to ask questions even before the plan in place, to be honest.

What am I missing?

What who um, you know, who what are some specific uh populations or customers of RTD, for example, um that might be impacted by this that we might not be thinking of immediately.

So, you know, for the farmers market as an example, we might be thinking about the farmers market customer and the direct business impact um or the impacts to the businesses directly within the boundaries of the farmers market, but there are spillover effects, there are impacts to people writing RTD as you mentioned.

Um so that might be an example where we could work with RTD to have something posted on the bus stop and uh collect feedback from there.

So it's a lot of it happens kind of on the collaboration side and as we're preparing for things like this and talking with experts within each field.

So our transportation engineer might have contacts at RTD economic development team would know how to talk with businesses, arts and cultural resources has a lot of downtown connections, and so kind of pulling all these pieces and resources together to to think through that.

But the intent of the plan is to really ask those questions.

So that's my that relates to my last question, which is with regard to Spanish speakers, ha do we collaborate with the faith community at all?

Where I know, for example, immaculate conception has a huge Spanish speaking component to their congregation, and and they might serve as a cultural broker for us, you know, and and we've actually had lots of Immaculate Conception members speak here from time to time and they've been very engaged with us.

So have we figured out are there other groups like that?

Maybe you know, the the bilingual elementary schools and and places like that where working within other groups in the community is a way that maybe they don't want to talk to us, but they have other folks they trust that they would be willing to talk to, and that we could help commun you know, get the word out about things.

Yeah.

I know we have it the schools, I'm not sure about the faith community.

Maybe yeah, we've um given presentations to churches um specifically for like South Boulder Road.

Um we engage with that community, and some other examples are like um 111th, you know, that was work being done by the town of Erie, so we collaborated with them.

We we kind of um they gave us notice of when their construction was starting, so we put out notification, just letting the community know that they would be impacted by that.

And right now um on 120th, Boulder County will have um one twentieth will be shut down, so we've notified the businesses.

Um they've notified the businesses, and then we're sharing their posts um to help show that you know businesses are still accessible and open.

Um so we do have partnerships and relationships that we do work closely with.

Um probably do more of that, um, definitely, but we do have some relationships established.

And I said that was my last question, but I had another thought.

And I've said this before, which is I know our intent is to try to make our website as great as it can be and drive people to it.

But do we have a policy of going to somebody else's website?

Let's say it was a Spanish speaking issue, we go to the Immaculate Conception website, you know, and I'm assuming I haven't been on their website, they might have a Spanish speaking section, you know, on their website where we could get the word out to people that we might need to get the word out about something or some other group, like um, you know, I and I I'm not sure all the Facebook groups that exist in Lafayette, but reaching them where they already are, especially if they are groups that we feel have not been adequately represented at the table in our community, is if we identify those and then find the Facebook or Instagram groups or whatever it might be of those types of organizations, then reaching them where they already are.

I know that in some way defeats the purpose of trying to drive everything to the website, you know.

But for things that are important, I think finding where they're already getting their news and information might be something we should think about.

Yeah, I just um I just want to make a comment about uh because I think I think the the w what you're saying is exactly the strategies we're trying to do around outreach and engagement and the website piece is really just having that primary source.

I mean, that really just serves as our you know primary source information.

And when we say we're driving people the website, that's not our only, you know, that's not our only strategy is just go to the website, go to the website.

I mean, we're doing lots of outreach, but when we want people to know, like, hey, where do I find out about the city of Lafayette, like that's where they go for it?

That's where we keep, you know, that's where everything is grounded.

So I mean, I think we are really trying to do that outreach to get people and find them where they are and meet them where they are, and then make sure they know that you know, Lafayette CO.gov and whatever specific area, they'll go there for one reason and then they get connected to everything else that they might want to know and might be able to find out.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

I and I appreciate the thoroughness of the presentation and the the values-based uh conversation about this that you guys have given so much thought about that.

Um I will say, since I've been on council, there have been several times where I have felt like we didn't think, and I'm not speaking for everybody, I don't mean to be doing that, but that somehow we'd failed uh getting the word out, doing the right thing in terms of communication.

I feel like we haven't I I I mean I think you're on the right track.

I'm not uh, you know, I just it's gotta be so important to I uh to the community to make sure we have inclusion, and I know you you know that, but also I just want to echo how important it is to I think all of us sitting up here.

Yeah, and that's why, you know, in Director Frazier's most recent role as constituent engagement was really kind of intriguing to us, and we look forward to seeing her thoughts following this presentation as well.

So not seeing any more questions from council.

I have two.

Um the first one um to our communications manager, uh Natalie.

You talks you talked about social media.

Uh you talked about how it's an ever-changing landscape.

There's always new platforms.

We don't necessarily want to jump in head first on everyone.

We want to uh kind of make sure that we understand how things change and kind of how communication is done more efficiently and which platforms.

Uh and I I I appreciate that.

And I'm really, really sorry because this is kind of a long-winded way to ask you relatively simple question.

Um but when speaking specifically, I'm gonna narrow our scope to emergency response.

Uh, there's of course uh BOCO Alert.

Um, there's there's these tools that we want people to use, but those are really they're really targeted.

Uh and when there are emergencies, uh I know just from personal experience, but also everyone I know, there's a lot of people that are just refreshing the feed on their social media hoping to hear from the city.

Uh so again, very long-winded way of asking you what platforms as of now have we found the best it during those times have worked best for us.

And is there any platform that right now we prioritize as a city during those times?

Um we found city alert pretty effective for emergency communications, and that's um people subscribe and they kind of know that they're only going to be notified for critical emergencies, for critical updates.

That's kind of like the banner that we have on the website that's given to them through email, they can get a text message, they can get a phone call.

Um that's been the most effective for those really timely responsive updates where the situation is changing, and then also sharing posts.

So for like any police activity, we want police to be handling that because they're you know, boots on the ground, they have the latest updates.

So what we will do is share the information, but we don't want to have it on multiple channels, because to your point, then where do I go to receive the most timely accurate information?

So it kind of depends on the situation.

But any time there is a kind of like an active police um issue, they are the driving force, and then we are supporting them and getting the word out, but um it depends on what the emergency is, and we do collaborate closely um like for the public um power outages.

We were working really closely with the county, um, with various cities.

We had a working group where we met every day at 7 a.m., kind of got the latest updates, and then they gave us information that then the rest of the cities kind of put out on their channels.

Did I answer your question?

It does, yes, thank you.

Uh second question, and our city manager, I think she knew where I was going with this.

Uh it's something that I'm really, really passionate about, something that I really, really love I have a lot of experience is it is uh constituent inquiries, constituent engagement.

So not to put our new communications director on the spot on on your first day.

Uh but and I know it's relatively it's a relatively unfair question, being that it is your first day.

But on a 30,000 foot level, just very high level.

35,000 football.

Uh can you tell me a little bit more about constituent inquiry, constituent engagement, and how you would how you're hoping to approach that for our city?

Sure.

Um so you know, as I've been listening, I've had uh really awesome opportunity to orient, and of course, as a resident, I've had the opportunity to engage as a uh community constituent.

Um some of the approaches that I think about uh regularly uh go to um what Councillor Friday was saying about how we measure.

Um, because I think measuring gives us a really great tool for then figuring out where we have to engage.

So as I I look at um the disaggregated way that uh contacts come into the city.

How can we tighten that up and get a better sense of trends?

Because that's going to give us a really great pathway to figure out like where we need to be enhancing communication.

And it also gives uh a better uh pathway for constituent engagement.

Um I'm l I'm looking forward to learning more about our social media approaches.

And so um, you know, where could we grow, where could we change?

Um the to a point made earlier.

Um, you know, we can't just point people to the newspaper anymore.

We can't just point people to TV because our communication channels are so disaggregated, so broad and so hyper local.

Um so I think how we engage in social spaces is going to be really important for that constituent engagement experience.

Um, while balancing some of the real challenges that you have about social media as a public forum.

Um so I look forward to learning more about like lessons the city has learned, so I don't need to learn them again.

Um, but also, you know, places where maybe lessons I've learned in past roles I can help us um move forward with engagement.

So um again, looping back, I think better measurement, um, better intake processes, um figuring out how we use uh social media as an engagement tool are some of the places where I would hit um for my constituent engagement approach.

Um I I run a call center.

I ran a call center.

It's like I've I've been on this job for a day and I left that job on Friday.

Um so um contact center at CU Boulder.

And so that's also a really wonderful way to really figure out where you're missing the point in processor communication.

Um so what does it look like to enhance that experience here?

Thank you so much.

Well, I think that's it.

Appreciate the presentation, appreciate your time.

Thank you.

I became

So some background.

In 2014, voters authorized five point five million in general obligation debt funded through property taxes to design, acquire, construct, remodel, furnish, and equip facilities at Lamont's Park.

Work was funded by the bonds, was completed in 2018, and the debt service is anticipated to be paid off at the end of this year, 2026.

So again, the current tax will expire at the end of 2026.

So the city may ask the voters to extend the current tax without increasing taxes to fund ongoing capital and operations.

Yeah, so uh I think everyone is familiar with this park.

It's a really well-loved community feature.

Um investments in this park have been a community conversation for a really long time as I've been doing research into the park's history and the lap pool, which we is the same pool that we have today.

The the construction on the park started in 1971 and 72 is when the swimming pool actually opened.

Um the whole park opened in 1975.

Um for a cost of a hundred thousand dollars.

The park operates um with admission fees that pay for and cover most of the operating costs and some of the more minor um repairs and standard replacements that um are required for the the water park component.

Um the park is funded through post and also through we can do some work with the conservation trust fund.

So for some of those major projects.

Repairing it is becoming diff uh difficult.

Um similarly, that fifty plus year old lap pool is seeing a lot of um needs for repairs.

And eventually it will require replacement, which are anticipating.

Two point eight million dollars conservatively, probably closer.

When we look all in.

So there's just a lot of capital needs that the community may consider uh planning for funding through this um through this option.

One thing that's important is that the the park and the water park is affordable for folks, and so um, we try to keep those fees affordable.

We are currently working on, and you'll hear more in your June workshop about a financial assistance program that we're working on to make the park, the water park especially even more affordable for folks.

Is there anything else you want to add?

I would just add that there are a lot of deferred replacement items at the Great Outdoors Water Park, and we're doing everything that we can to meet those needs and make sure that it's operable and serviceable.

But just simply a recent unexpected example is uh a boiler uh as we were uh doing startup, it was working just fine uh a couple weeks ago, and then uh on Tuesday we found out that it wasn't working uh and caught on fire, and we needed to uh replace it.

And those those things happen in unfortunately in the aquatic environment with a lot of mechanical infiltration systems, and we've got a lot of infrastructure needs with that pool that a lot of people don't see uh plumbing in the deck, they're settling uh around the deck.

Uh so it's it's really a matter of time as Melissa said for that laptop.

And opening day was Friday, Saturday, Saturday.

All right, so we're good.

Uh so then so text nobody mentioned the turf replacement.

Could uh nobody discuss that?

Could you talk about them?

Yeah, so there is a lot of turf on the site, and so there are things that we can explore as far as you know, potential turf replacement, potentially doing other things on the site, outdoor um fitness type things.

Um tax extension and taper considerations.

Um the tax impact from the current mill levy was around $35 per year for the average household over the life of the bonds that's annually.

Uh, this extension would be a dedicated source of funds to maintain and operate the facility, currently funded through the general fund conservation trust fund and fees, as Missa just um talked about.

Uh capital enhancements again could include improvements to the lap pool, filtration and mechanical systems, water quality systems, and building enhancements.

Um these would also support increased site use and a potentially extended season during uh the BBRC capital bond construction, which would be starting next year.

And then uh so again, in summary, based on the 2014 tax question, the maximum amount raised annually could be no more than 713,000 as the resolution residential assessment rate and the estimated average home value change each year.

The mill rate would need to be calculated each year as to the amount generated again not to exceed 713,000.

So some calculations based on the 2025 numbers are provided in the table.

I'll get to that in the next slide here, to demonstrate demonstrate the revenue generated per mill rate and the annual tax impact on residents.

So based on an average home value in 2025 of 712,000, the maximum annual tax impact impact of the tax extension is about $37 or just over $3 per month per household.

So here you can see we have mill rate revenue generated and the tax impact.

So again, that maximum amount is about $36.

Currently, residents are paying about $22.

It's at that 0.5 mil rate as the bond is just about to expire.

And then so again, the current tax will expire at the end of 2026.

The previous tax was for debt and capital construction only.

Uh the proposed extension would allow for funding of both operating and capital expenses, and possible ballot language drafted by Butler Snow, who's the city's bond council, would mirror the previous tax question in 2014.

Um that's what we've got for other than questions and last.

Matty, you have anything you want to add?

No, nothing specific, but happy to answer any questions that you all might have.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh counselor gallegos.

So I noticed a non-resident daily rate posted this year.

Have we anticipated what that visiting guest enhanced rate might bring in?

Sure.

I mean, it's a it's on average 20% greater uh revenue from that admission.

Uh so uh I don't have the figures on on hand, but uh you know we generate several hundred thousand dollars in revenue from the water park uh each summer.

Um so looking at likely 20% greater than that.

The water park is currently subsidized by the general fund, though, just to note so part of the reason why we did explore looking at a non-resident fee was to help with that cost recovery model.

So it's not that this money could go to those capital projects, it's just to try to make it whole so that the general fund can support other functions.

So counselor Johnson.

Are you tied to the current mill levy or tied to the current total amount that's raised?

How does that work?

Yeah, I um I should preface I am not an attorney, um, but I have worked with um the city's bond council on this style of question for a number of um entities.

Um and what you are tied to is that 713,000 dollar amount.

Um that was essentially what the city is the maximum you were allowed to collect from a revenue and a tax standpoint under that original uh ballot question in 2014.

The extension of that would cap the maximum that you can collect at that 713,000.

So it's it's it's a uh a dollar amount, the Melevey would be required to be adjusted on an ongoing basis so that you don't collect more than that.

Thank you.

Council Friendland, given typical rates today, how much would that allow us to borrow $713,000 a year?

I mean, it depends on the term of how long we're borrowing, but I mean you can roughly look the five and a half million would it would be about the same, yeah, maybe uh a little bit more depending on interest rates.

Um obviously the further out you go, potentially you can get a little bit more bang for your buck, so to speak, of how much you can borrow, but you're gonna pay more back over time.

How does that amount meet the needs that we have?

Projected needs that we're thinking of for this money.

Is that about do we need more?

Sounded like the pool was all of that.

Yeah, I would say we we definitely need more.

I think this would give us some more flexibility though, because there this isn't the only property, it's not the only park, it's not the only facility that we're having to address issues, so it would give us a little bit of um capacity.

And so the post fund, I'm I'm I'm kind of a little familiar with it from being uh liaison for low SAB for a little while.

Um but the the post fund includes parks already, right?

That's the P.

Um so I guess I'm I'm a little I don't know, just like I'm a little confused to be honest, because uh what like what happened?

So we had the post fund, and that allowed us to purchase things in the past and use that for some maintenance, but then we have additional like maintenance that we didn't cover, and thus now we have like deferred maintenance that we need, or now we need renewal of equipment.

It seems like this is could this be a systemic problem across the city that we're like having to pay for our parks and we don't have enough funding for it.

Does that make sense?

There are a lot of pieces in that question.

So part of it I think is is um there's also legacy.

So legacy is for the acquisition of property, yes um post supports um parks and trails.

Okay.

Um and then we do get some additional conservation trust fund that we can use for capital projects um related to parks and related to recreation.

Um there has been some pretty significant deferred maintenance across properties over you know many years, and so there are needs that do exist.

Okay, got it.

Yeah, I mean, I think we talked a lot last year about much larger projects, but it is uh you know a work in progress now with Heather on board um as the CFO to kind of plan out more appropriately.

Um if you heard the park, I mean it was 68 or 60 72.

72, 1970.

100,000, but like still now five million.

Right, and so it's also like when you plan appropriately planning for um enough inflation, inflation back then looked a lot different than it does now.

So um yeah, but I think you know, one of the things if council is interested, at least continuing the conversation, you know, we can also structure one of the things that we thought was appropriate for this use is operating as well.

So the first portion, if depending on how long we want it to be, could be for that capital maintenance, and then the other portion is to help with that operation to keep it up to speed.

Yeah.

Well, but that so you've already said that the great outdoors water park is being subsidized.

But this this question really is not just about that.

That's part of it.

There's the pool.

There's also the ball fields next to it, right, which are adjacent but not part of the grid outdoors water park.

And the Lamont Doe's playground, which is awesome, by the way.

Um that's a older 2020 six, sorry, 2004, or something you said.

So to me, it's like, okay, what are our needs, and then what do we build to meet that need?

Um is sort of the question that's around in my mind.

And it and here's a question I've had before, and we've talked about it of we're already subsidizing the grid outdoors water park.

That's a policy decision that we've made, which is fair.

But I think it becomes a challenge when over time we're subsidizing and we're not putting money away for future capital needs, which if we're running this like a business, you probably would have to figure that out and do bonding for that too, similarly.

Um, but you would have to internalize all the costs, and so at a certain point you look at it and you say, is this a good investment for the city?

Um going back to the voters for additional money when that money might not be sufficient for our needs.

It feels like a tough question to me.

So just my sort of feedback of how do we how do we piece of feedback right there?

And then the question is how how do we like bridge that gap where we need to have sustainable services financially sustainable, but also we need to serve the community, right?

And so is it just we go bond every 12 years and get in another five and a half million dollars and that's that's what we bank on?

What if the voters say no?

Um I don't know, it just feels like a tough.

Does that make sense?

How do we do that?

Well, I do go ahead.

I I would say on uh recreation amenities, parks amenities, there are some other creative uh solutions to it through grants.

Uh there are federal grants, there are statewide grants through Great Outdoors Colorado, uh, you know, the conservation trust fund is a great way to leverage funds because oftentimes you have to have matching dollars.

Uh and uh again, if if we were to push forward and through this avenue, that also just allows us to get even more creative with how we share those funds around and leverage what we do have.

Okay.

Yep, that's that's exactly right.

That's part of what I was gonna say.

And then I would just add, I do think you know, um, finance is really looking closely, you know, in this next budget to the extent that we can, and then as we move further out, really looking at all our facilities, all our equipment, really trying to beef up what our capital plan and really understand long term what that looks like.

Yeah, uh, and you know, working with uh you know our technology and all number of things to make sure that we're really tracking that better so that we can start to plan for the future more in intentionally.

Yeah, okay, got it.

Well, you know, I don't know.

Yeah, I think you're probably looking for direction tonight in some way, and I'm sure we will get there as a council.

But I think my piece of feedback is um around that, like, you know, expand the scope of what you're asking.

Like, tell us what you need, right?

And then let's figure that out.

I don't necessarily know if we should just you know repeat a tax or not.

I think it's fair for us to think about it.

But like if we have larger capital needs, let's figure out a plan to meet those larger capital needs.

And if that's a bond, then we need to have justification to the community, and we need to tell them just like we did last year.

Um, here's what we need, here's why, right?

And they'll tell us, okay, here you go.

Or not, right?

And so I don't know, like getting after it in this way to me feels like, well, I want to know what all of our needs are because at the end of the day, you know, we're not really talking about the great outdoor water park here.

We're talking about part of it, which is an old pool that's been there for a long time.

Um, but also all these other pieces too, which are fair things that we need to deal with and also have less revenue potential, right?

A ball field, a playground that nobody pays for, they just go and enjoy it.

Um those things, you know.

So I think just coming at it from that perspective to me feels clear in my mind of like here's our needs, here's why we need this money, and let's go find it.

But thank you so much for the presentation.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate how you frame that because I think what we could say is like the need is for that, you know, the pool.

And so instead of the general funds putting away five million dollars that could be used for other things, this could be used for it, and that frees up for the parking stuff.

So yeah, I appreciate the.

Yeah, and this also does include our operating, which I think is important as we continue to subsidize and those costs and staff gets more and more expensive over time as well.

It does also provide provide some flexibility between capital and operating as well.

Yeah, which we don't currently have.

We don't have in the current.

No, okay.

And I think one of the things that we've seen is you know, these operating costs.

I mean, you know, we know the cost of staffing have gone up more than what we want to raise the costs of these programs and services.

I mean, the cost of these amenities, we they are community amenity amenities, and we want to keep them at a level that are within the reach and that are accessible to members of the community, and so we don't want to continue, we don't want to run it like a business in the sense that we're you know escalating the cost to meet the cost of actually you know operating in that sense.

So I mean I think we have to keep that in consideration.

It is a public amenity, it's not a private, you know, it's not a private health club.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, and I and I'm I agree with that, and I'm supportive of that, right?

We need public amenities, right?

But at the end of the day, we can't fund something into infinity without paying for it.

So we either we pay for it through taxing, property taxes, or sales tax, or from the ratepayer.

Like somebody's paying for it.

And the community has to decide if it's something that they value as an amenity.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Any other questions for council counselor Rayos?

Have we explored other options for raising this amount of money, increasing concessions, maybe increasing the birthday party rate, or even offering private buyouts?

Yeah, so we did the fee study last year, and we're going to bring more of that information in the June financial update and workshop.

We'll talk about that.

I would say certainly not enough to cover the cost of these major major repairs.

Just to give you some perspective, concessions and kind of that merch type of thing, you know, resale items generated just over 68,000 last year.

So I mean we're talking a considerable amount when we're thinking about that.

Counselor Gianello.

Thank you.

I'm I'm really struggling with this.

Um we went to the voters last fall for 75 million around.

Like 10?

Like more than 10 times what we're looking for here.

Um I'm just struggling how we can just keep going back to the voters for kind of the same thing.

We had, you know, I don't even remember how much of that 74 million was for recreation.

For expanding the recenter, expanding aquatics.

Now we're going again for more aquatic expansion.

I mean, I know there's a need for this, but it's a lot to keep asking the voters to pay for the same thing year after year after year.

Um when we say, oh, this is only going to be you know for a few years and then it'll be paid off and then your tax rate's gonna go down.

I mean, we're talking about uh a bond proposal saying without raising taxes, yet in your presentation you talked about the current resident residents are currently paying $22 a year, but we could raise it to $36 or $37 a year, which is a $15 increase, right?

It is not keeping it fixed.

So I just really struggle with you know continuing to go back to the voters.

I appreciate it, and I do recognize that all this stuff costs money.

Um where's the breaking point for our for our residents, especially you know, our fixed income residents who they're getting a huge uh impact from the bond measure that was passed last year?

I feel like they they need a break.

I don't know the answer of how we give them a break, and we also fund the things that we love and want to maintain in the community.

I just I'm really struggling with with what's the right answer here and whether I will support this or not.

Great.

Thank you.

Since we're kind of getting into the discussion of this, I I see your hand, Counselor Jensen.

Uh I will kind of circle back now and kind of try to gauge what we're as counsel.

The we'll the one thing I will say is we're obviously not making a decision tonight, and if we move forward with this, it's to explore this further.

I think we have quite some time before we have to decide what's going to go on the ballot.

Um so with that said, uh I will go to counselor Judson next.

I saw her hand, but I also just want to hear where you're at with this.

So could you speak to Counselor Gianola's question about why can we say without raising taxes when we are able to add $15 a month to explain the mechanics of that?

Sure.

So uh again, this is sort of a legal concept, but the what you're doing through this question, if you chose to put it on the ballot is uh extending a tax increase that was previously authorized up to the maximum of $713,000 a year.

You do not have to collect $713,000 in a given year.

Um the mill levy was less uh than h historically this past year because um the debt service amount dropped on those bonds slightly compared to prior years, and I believe there were some excess funds from prior collections that the city had collected from that dedicated mill levy.

Um and those funds can only be used to pay debt service on those bonds.

You couldn't use them for other purposes, and so I think when staff was calculating that final mill levy in December, um all of that went into the determination to determine you know what that that mill levy should be.

I think it's 0.48 or 0.49 mill, so it was round and say 0.5.

Um the city is able to levy whatever mill it chooses to collect revenue so long as you're within the 713,000.

And so um this would really be a discussion, I think if if you chose to move forward with this, this is not something that has to be decided now.

But you if you did decide to put it on the ballot and it and if it was approved, you could just keep that Milleby the same for certification and collect collection next year.

You could even choose to collect it or sorry, keep the mill levy the same in the future and allow revenues to grow as assessed value grows until you reach that $713,000 cap, and then that would be you know at the max, and you would have to adjust the mill levy.

So there are options there.

This is really just, and I think maybe to address some of the other questions that have come up.

This is a unique opportunity, understanding there are other capital needs of the city, and there's and maybe some additional kind of holistic review that that maybe needs to be done.

Once that debt is paid off after this year, the ability to ask this format of ballot question goes away.

So I think this is just something from a fiscal prudency and understanding the need that it was worth having the conversation with you all just given where where the city's at in the repayment of those bonds and the expiration of that tax.

So I this is not a question but a comment.

I think Councillor Glegos, Counselor Bullier and I, when we went to the teens talk adults listen, one of the things we heard loud and clear was places for young people.

This serves as that you can go without your parents and hang out for the day, and it also employs young people.

Um we know that the youth in our world right now are struggling with mental health issues, and I think opportunities for young people to be able to go somewhere and hang that are safe and supervised are really important right now.

Um I am also very interested in what we're gonna talk about in June, which is a financing mechanism for those who can't really afford this opportunity.

And I'm I'm hoping that will also be a good selling point for the community, which is not only are we continuing what we've been offering, but we're also gonna make it possible for people who previously couldn't afford this to be able to afford it.

And I I would want to say that's not just really poor people.

Middle income people in our community are struggling with you know how much it costs, you know, if you're a family of four and it's eight, ten dollars per person, you know, that's forty dollars to go to the swimming pool for the day and not sustainable for folks for the whole summer.

So I would hope we can look at not just for the very poor, but also for the you know lower and uh middle income people to try to find opportunities to to help people solve the mental health issues that we have by giving youth a place to go.

Thank you.

Mayor Proton.

Thank you, Mayor.

It's a point of clarification in our packet and uh on the screen.

I'm not sure what the three dollars was.

It's three dollars three dollars a month if you assume the maximum of thirty-six dollars a year.

Oh that's what someone would pay.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Yeah, but these are annual annual figures.

Fantastic.

Uh the other question is what uh we were talking about alternative sources of income, and I this came up, and I'm not sure which council it was.

They're all blown together.

Uh food trucks in the parking lot.

Did we decide that's not a thing we can do?

Through our code, we have the ability to approve that.

I think it's a matter of philosophy and and uh how we want to go about it.

The last time we spoke, uh, we talked about that diverting revenue away from concessions that we sell in-house.

Uh so it's a trade-off, right?

I mean, you're getting sales tax through uh through uh a private vendor or through concessions in-house.

But if we make sure that the food's not competing that with concessions.

Okay.

I just wanted to throw that out there because I'm not sure if it will be everybody's memory on council.

Um Counselor GNO.

I think you said the roof is the wrong way, so we don't have solar channels that work on it.

Is that that many times?

All right, so people are listening.

I don't know.

I was listening.

So there's there's things we could do.

I'm not saying change the roof, but maybe we could change the roof.

Uh you know, and use more renewables there.

I think this is an incredible resilience hub, and just like Councilor Governor, Counselor Jimson and Counselor Boyer.

But the uh I I it's a I'm finding out that it's a legacy uh heart center for a Lafayette.

Like the pool, the people who grew up here.

Um that's their pool.

Uh they have it so it's it's self-selected as a place that Lafayette people um go to.

Uh so I want to I I and I I think we need to be we need to understand what's the financial future look like and creative, but I I'm in support of keeping that pool, but also working hard to figure out how how do we uh minimize some of the uncertainty behind um what its financial future looks like because obviously we can't let stuff crack the pipes there.

I'm not gonna go into that, but we gotta make sure the pool works.

Um I did have a question though about the cost.

I guess it doesn't make any sense at this point.

I was thinking it was $36 a month.

But if it's $36 a year, is there a way we could make sure that we actually don't increase taxes if you think backwards.

Uh so that the actual uh cost of people with an average home value of 750 are still paying 22 a year.

I don't know if it's possible to do the math backwards.

But uh okay.

So I'll just throw that out there that maybe we can actually not increase the taxes.

Oh yeah.

Started at the time, too.

Right.

Yeah, and over time you'll be generating more at I mean, as assessed value continues to go up, you'll be able to that that price will, you know, the amount that you to maximize your 713,000, you'll have to the annual cost to residents will be less over time.

And as a reminder, council is the body sets the mill rate, so it's not that like you guys would have control over it.

So just Maddie said that much more eloquently than I did before.

Yes.

Oh, good.

Council Bullier.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you everyone so much for the conversation.

I'll be very brief.

Um to your question, Mayor, in terms of broadly support, yes.

Uh I definitely don't want to be an Ebenezer Scrooge on this.

It's as Mayor Brodam Barnes said this is a community hub, so strongly support that.

I really appreciate particularly Councillor Gianola and Councillor Fridland's points on kind of looking at the larger systemic and structural issues.

I almost feel a little embarrassed about asking Lafayette residents to consider a plus or minus $34 uh a year tax.

It's sort of like is the juice worth the squeeze for that?

So I'd be really interested in how we package this with uh other things um so that we're not coming back year over year, as Councillor Gianola said.

Uh and then I I wonder too, in terms of tying this to our earlier session on communications.

One in terms of how we tell the story about hey, there was decades of different maintenance, which is why we're collectively cleaning up this mess now and just being candid with residents about that challenge, but also telling the story about you know, for many folks who maybe aren't as familiar with this park as that could be about what a rich history it offers and what a vibrant space is for the community, and that's why we're investing in it going forward.

So that might be an interesting thing for the the comms team to look into.

Thank you.

Over thank you, counselor.

Uh I'm seeing the majority of council is on board looking at this further and having this come back to council.

Yeah, so we'll have some Tabor and some Taver and chart charter deadlines that are coming up pretty soon.

Eventually, this will we'll bring back um draft ballot language for consideration, and then we'll have to make decisions about putting it on the ballot.

I think is it in August?

Yeah, usually it's like the first Friday Labor Day's weird this year, so I don't know.

But um usually it's like the first Friday in September is when that has to be certified to county.

So normally we suggest adopting that in um August.

Perfect.

I was gonna ask you next steps, but you're already ahead of me.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

I I just one more other question.

There, you know, there are other ballot measures I'm hearing about that will impact people's taxes this year, and um our decision about whether to go forward might be influenced by how many other taxes are being asked of folks.

Um I get that by doing it this year we get to say without raising taxes, but in light of thinking more comprehensively if we looked at this in the future um and maybe create a trust fund for this amenity through you know a tax measure so that we have you know, we're pulling on the interest of a fund, you know, in the future instead of that the bond money.

There, I that's just off the top of my head.

But um if we weren't doing it this year, it would give us a chance to look at those big picture issues, but it would also mean our likelihood of passing will be less because we will have to say raising taxes to do something.

So and I'm I am a little concerned about what uh other tax measures might be on the ballot and how this will compete.

Yeah, we'll be bringing all that forward for your consideration until I can appreciate that, and there is some strategy.

So thank you, Council.

Great, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

I don't know what you're doing.

Oh then given it.

I can do wherever you want me to do.

Do you like to talk about it?

Did you get one of those real quick?

Oh my god, they were grabbed her for the church.

It's the switched and this using an IT.

Oh my god, like restarting on you.

Perfect.

Well, you're fine.

Thank you.

I need to go with some key.

Great.

I think we're ready to get started.

Oh, there it is.

Ready?

Okay.

Uh evening, Mayor and Counselors.

Uh, my name's Kevin Shulman.

I'm the chief building official.

Um, so tonight uh gonna talk a little bit about uh the direction that we're proposing to go with the building codes.

Um, and get some feedback on uh whether the city council is supportive of the direction.

Um so on the agenda we've got background and intent, uh area adoption plans, proposed amendments, uh current engagement efforts, and proposed schedule and future plans.

So the uh building codes, which are known as the I codes, are produced by the International Code Code Council and they're updated once every three years.

Um those include codes like the International Building Code, which regulates items like building egress, accessibility finishes, uh the fire code, which regulates fire protection items, uh the international residential code, which regulates all uh aspects of residential construction in one and two family dwellings and townhomes.

Um and then also the International Energy Conservation Code, which regulates all things related to promoting energy conservation in a building.

Um those codes are updated every three years uh and normally updated based on new technology, uh new methods of construction, and also clarifying uh previously uh vague requirements.

They're updated through uh consensus committee uh through uh specific committees that are formed through the International Code Council, uh and they get together several times uh over a three-year cycle and vote on the uh different code sections based on uh changes that come from public professionals, uh code experts, uh design professionals, um, and anyone else interested in the public.

The latest version that the city adopted was the 2021 code package, and that was adopted effective August of 23.

Uh as I said, a new code version is published every three years, and Lafayette typically will update those about two years after the version is published.

So the 21 version was updated in uh 2023, and this year we'll propose to update uh to the 2024 code package.

Um will include amendments based on local conditions or process.

Uh and then also uh we've been working with uh what used to be a Boulder County cohort and now has grown into a more of a regional effort uh that's led by Dr.

Cog.

So in the area uh Lafayette's got uh several neighbors that are uh either currently or have just finished this process to update the codes.

Um you can see on this chart that uh so like Broomfield recently uh updated to the 24.

Uh Boulder updated to the 24 about a year ago, uh Boulder County updated to the 2021.

Um, and then I wasn't able to find on the website the last time, uh ERI updated, but it appeared they were on the 2021.

Uh Lafayette uh will propose to adopt the Metro Cohort Model Code, which as I spoke about the uh building policy collaborative, uh, is a code that's been uh created by them uh by the group that we're a part of.

Um and we've got several jurisdictions in the area that are looking to update to these codes as well.

Um some of them that have done this currently, some of them plan to do this very soon, um, and some of them that uh have already done this.

So kind of high-level proposed amendments.

Uh we did some work in the last code cycle to consolidate uh our administration and scope and uh provide more uh clear code language as to what our code process is and how all that language is written.

Um the base version of the code is written very vaguely.

Uh so most cities have to take uh a bit of leeway uh to figure out how to enforce that language.

Uh some cities have uh written it down, and that's what we're trying to do is write down our specific process.

Uh we'll adopt the 2026 National Electrical Code in accordance with state regulations.

Uh that will happen in August.

Um we'll also add in uh window replacement permits will be required.

That is part of the base code.

Um, and that was something that uh we had to step back from in 2018 and 2019 when uh we were faced with uh thousands of roof replacement permits.

Uh so we'll propose to bring that back in.

Uh we'll also propose to bring in uh regulations for radon systems, uh, which is known to be a cancer-causing agent in the area.

And then uh a small change to fire sprinklers.

So we, if you remember, uh council approved uh residential fire sprinklers as part of the international residential code in 2023.

Uh we had an exception that we kind of considered a soft landing for builders that were in process that allowed uh subdivisions that were underway to not have to upgrade all of their horizontal construction that had already been completed for fire sprinklers.

Uh we'll propose to take that that amendment out because we've given uh the builders the three years that we thought was fair to be able to build.

Uh some more energy-related amendments.

Uh so the 2024 uh base energy conservation code uh is proposed to reduce energy cost by 5.5% and energy use by seven and a third.

Uh and that's uh based on our uh climate zone, which is 5B.

Uh that is just the base 2024 IECC.

Uh Colorado has produced the uh LECC, which is the low energy and carbon code, uh which is a step above, includes Colorado amendments.

Uh what we'd like to do is adopt the 2024 Metro Cohort Model Code, uh, which as I said was the code that was produced by the building policy collaborative.

Uh that includes enough amendments to where the state considers that an equivalent, um, but it we also consider it to be a more simplified version because the amendments are based right out of the IECC.

Um electrification requirements.

We had another uh exception that I considered a soft landing uh for mostly for subdivisions but also for existing residential uh lots that had been platted prior to August 1 of 23 that did not have to electrify.

We'll propose to take that amendment out.

Um we'll include PV ready and required amendments, which already exist in our code.

We won't be making any change to those.

Uh EV requirements, uh we'd like to align with the state code and surrounding jurisdictions, uh, which our amendments or our uh percentages were a little bit high based on the feedback that we gotten from council and the community for that.

Um and we don't know that it totally worked.

Um then some future uh amendments we'd like to consider our waste aversion amendment.

Um that language is in process right now and on our current schedule.

I don't think we'll have time to uh get uh tried and true system in that will work.

Uh so we'd like to we'll be working with uh uh regional uh group to try to uh create language that uh will be one consistent with other places in the region and also a little more thought out.

Current engagement efforts, we've got a Lafayette listens page up.

On that page, we have a code change summary, which includes changes from every code, not just the energy code.

But at their high-level changes, their changes that were created, you know, more or less in layman's terms rather than needing to read through uh 140 pages of amendments that we're looking to have adopted.

Uh we do also have the draft code language up on that page, and it's uh exhibit A of the agenda packet.

Um and then we have a schedule of the schedule of events and important dates.

Uh we have most of this information on the website.

Uh we also I went and spoke with uh SRAB uh a week ago at the May 18 regular meeting.

Um important points that came after that were uh some questions about uh EV ready and direction, uh brainstorming options to encourage high efficiency HVAC requirements, uh and then also some questions about electrification uh and a few questions about uh the window permit uh process.

The proposed schedule uh from here going forward.

Uh I'll be presenting at planning commission tomorrow.

Um and then first reading would be uh June 16th, second reading on July 7th, uh, and then over the course of July we'll prepare the website and public guides for changes, um, and then substantial completion would be when the codes are effective, uh, which will be on August 1 of 2026.

Uh what that means is that if council approves on second reading, uh someone submitting for a new building permit can submit uh any time uh they can submit based on the existing codes and the new codes between the adopted date and the effective date, but then before the effective date, they will have to switch over to the new codes.

Uh future plans, we're currently in the process of hiring an energy code compliance specialist, um and that's funded by a grant that the city received through the work that we're doing with Dr.

Cog.

Um what that staff member will do will aid existing staff and energy code plan review and inspections, uh research strengthening energy code amendments and policies uh in preparation for the 2029 process, uh, which would be when we would adopt the 2027 code package.

Uh and we'll also aid with the diversion requirements that uh I spoke about a few minutes ago.

Um, and then as I spoke about, uh staff is also working with that regional group to create uh requirements for construction and waste diversion.

Uh we and as I said, I don't imagine that we'll be able to uh have anything ready in in a usable format to be approved uh with this code update, uh, but we would like to be ready for possibly a mid-adoption uh or at the latest with the 2029 code cycle.

Uh and that is my presentation.

All right, thank you.

Questions from council.

Council Fredland?

Uh I don't know if I have a ton of questions, a couple maybe, but a lot of kudos too.

I want to give you kudos on this.

I think you know, one of the things that you have in here is reduce energy use by 7.31%, right?

I mean, that might be one of the most impactful things that we do as a city to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, right?

And so, like, this is you know, really technical stuff that like I don't know how many people from the community will be like clamoring at public comment to say please do this, but like the number doesn't lie.

So just thank you for doing this work.

Um I want to say that first.

Um I also want to say for the um uh diversion of of material for for new projects.

I love it when somebody comes and says, you know what, we want to do this right.

And so we're gonna you know join with the regional partners.

I mean, I I think we've seen in Colorado, I've certainly seen when folks rush to diversion requirements, especially for construction projects, it just fails, right?

And so you have to have a system around you that can facilitate actual diversion.

So just you know, thank you for for being mindful about that.

Hope SRAB was supportive of that too.

Um so I'm curious around the windows.

Um so we will require permits in the future for all window replacements, like if somebody's doing a couple windows in their house, that will require a permit.

Is that right?

Yeah, this so this requirement's actually part of the base code.

Okay, um, and it has been part of the base code for probably as far as I can go back.

Got it.

Um there's a couple reasons for that.

The biggest one is safety.

We need to make sure that if safety glazing is required, that the inspectors can catch that.

The builders don't always catch that.

And that's that's pretty critical safety stuff.

But then speaking to the energy, we can also make sure that they're getting uh the correct U factor or better for those windows.

And it's, you know, as I explained in the uh SRAB presentation, we're hoping for a pretty seamless process.

We've got some documents created.

Um they'll need to submit a document that has kind of a basic layout of your house, shows where the windows are, and then uh we'll just simply the builder or the applicant will identify is safety glazing required here.

We've got the language that tells them where safety glazing is required.

Uh, and then also they'll tell us if it's uh egress window.

Um we'll take that, we should be able to process the permit in two or three days.

Yeah, um, and then we do one inspection.

We'll check to make sure that they have carbon monoxide and smoke alarms in their house, which they can use uh battery operated uh so they can buy those off the shelf for not very expensive.

Um we're hoping it's not going to be any more than 15 minutes out of someone's day for for an inspection like that.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate the presentation.

Thank you.

Counselor Johnson's raise your hand.

Yep.

So I thought as part of the land use code, we were going to make accompanying changes uh in the building code on night sky or dark sky requirements, and I didn't see that in there.

Is that coming later or what is going on with that?

Well, in the land use code, there is a section in the land use fill plays there uh planning and building tournament.

Uh in the land use code, there is a section on dark sky lighting, and so it will be required as part of the um land use code if the current draft is adopted.

Um that will then be implemented generally through um the building division when they process a permit, and so those would be then confirmed in the field, typically so thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, given that um so much of Lafayette is built out and a lot of energy uses is probably gonna be somebody replacing their furnace or their hot water heater.

Um I was involved in a piece of legislation that said if you are you have a home warranty and you replace your furnace or your hot water heater or anything that uses energy, and you wanted to go to a more efficient uh appliance, they had to let you and give you credit uh for the the value of the older one towards the newer, more energy efficient item.

But the legislation didn't say they have to tell you you have that option, and and I also wondered about lots of other things, like um, you know, when you're making repairs to your home or just replacing an appliance, there may be information like if you got a new energy efficient dishwasher, you could say this amount of money in gas or you know, electricity or whatever it is.

And I know this is not what this is about, but is there a way to help people understand who are not building new but replacing things, what the energy efficiency benefit cost versus benefit is to them, and and the city to be a part of helping people because so much of our our residential is already done that we're not gonna get people to put in new more energy efficient appliances by regulation, but we might be able to by showing them the benefit that they could get out of it somehow, and maybe that's a communications uh you know, maybe it's not a building uh I don't know what it is, but it seems like we could be helpful.

We did discuss this a little bit at the SRAB meeting um with respect to kind of this life cycle costing concept of look if you're looking at the energy cost that you're spending from this new device versus this other device, you're saving money and you're saving energy.

Right, right.

So we we did discuss it.

It doesn't sound from the discussion.

Correct me if I if I'm misremembering that that's not something that really is in the building code as a as a lever that we had.

Yeah, it it wouldn't be specifically regulated by the building code.

Um the energy code still defers to EPA requirements.

Um having accurate data around that is tough to it would be tough for someone on our scale to get as a city.

But there might be some uh state or national resources from either uh Colorado DOE or uh USDOE that we could get and put on the website, and then it's then it's one more place that it's available for the code.

And the Colorado Energy Office has a lot of that kind of data.

And I know that that's not something we're deciding on, or but could we just sort of earmark that for the future to look into how we could help people who are changing out appliances make better decisions that would all maybe make that 7.3% go up even further, you know, in the future by uh helping them understand the benefits?

Yeah, it it doesn't take much time for us to uh add a couple links to the website.

Uh and I that I agree with you, I think that'd be helpful.

Great.

Thank you.

Counselor Janola.

We also discussed existing building code.

Um and so I just wondered if you could talk a little bit about you know this is all for new buildings.

What about the existing building stock?

Um just say a little bit about that.

Yeah, so um the existing building code, which is about this thick, um, regulates uh all types of existing buildings from alterations to additions.

Um the existing building code doesn't focus on energy as much.

There's an existing building section in the energy code that does say what you have to do.

Um alterations in a nutshell says you need to do the best you can, um, and that's determined in the field.

Um additions, you have to treat the addition just like a new building.

Um then uh the existing building code uh regulates a lot more uh items related to structure, accessibility, uh this more of the safe the direct safety upgrades, electrical, mechanical, um, but it says it'll it'll have the regulations that uh will provide the guidance for where you update uh you know a building if it's a small alteration, you know, painting floors, replacing windows, that kind of stuff, uh moving walls or uh an alteration that's you know on a larger scale, and then obviously there's a sliding scale with those different alteration types uh where they uh uh mandate different requirements that are uh required.

And like I said, it's mostly from a structural uh or accessibility standpoint uh that though that those are updated in the existing building code, but the um the existing regulations in the energy code uh do regulate just the specific energy portions of that.

Is the existing building code being updated with this package?

So we are getting updates to that with this as well.

Yep.

Okay, yep.

Um so though, as I said, these codes are they're produced every three years.

Um we do know that kind of some of the information in the codes that's a little more important to the council is does is going to come out of the energy code.

Um but we do get improved construction with every code.

We align with technology, uh, make sure that the regulations um are as clear as they could possibly be.

Uh, you know, fix fix our past flaws, or if uh you know something new with relation to technology was introduced in the code, um, you know, the the committees are always going and saying, okay, what worked here, what didn't.

Um, and those are those are getting updated every three years.

That's why I think it's really important uh to just have a uh consistent cadence of updating the codes, and that's that's what I've been trying to do in the four and a half years that I've been the building official here.

Just one more.

Um we so we if we approve the the code update in I think it was June, July.

June would be first reading, July 7th and 2nd.

And then we have this, I think it was July 24th kind of cutoff date.

Do we expect a rush on permits?

Have we seen that historically?

Yeah, we did.

We did in uh 2023.

Um yeah, we we did see a spike in permit um uh volume.

Uh and you know, the important thing with with that rush is um so we really can't accept an incomplete submittal package.

We've got to make sure that we have all of the compliance documents so that we can actually perform a comprehensive review on a permit.

So if we do get a permit in slightly before that date, and we find out, hey, you're missing something, the codes don't officially update uh till August 1.

So they they get a little bit of a window before they officially turn into a pumpkin, as it were.

That's why we have July 24th.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it's you know, the rush on the bank does does even it out a little bit for staff, but it's also it is a benefit to the builders because they can they kind of get their own dry run.

Thank you.

Counselor Jensen.

Um thank you.

The uh we have tiny homes in our land use code, and we have the possibility of ADUs coming.

Is there any size that all of this kicks in, or does it apply to everything equally?

Uh so the codes apply, the building codes apply to all buildings uh equally.

Um as far as regulated size, tiny homes, zoning, that's all going to be in the land use code.

Uh ADUs are already legal.

Uh we don't we don't get a lot of them, I would say.

I was thinking of the energy requirements.

They all apply no matter how big the spaces.

Okay.

All right.

Yep.

So which of course will make them more expensive to build.

And um when somebody gets an let's say a tiny house already made and plops it on a foundation in their property, or some uh maybe an ADU.

Is the wiring and all that or do they do that on site, or um how does that work so that you can inspect and make sure it meets the code?

So tiny homes and modular homes, uh, the actual construction of those is all regulated through the state.

Um it's it's mandated through the state, we don't get a lot of say in that.

Got it.

Um so really the only the only place that we would get say on that would be uh you know in the zoning regulations, where can we actually put that?

Um but as far as if if we have a zone that's regulated for uh modular home or a tiny home, we don't get a lot of say in that.

We we get we kind of get reduced as a staff to yep, we see the state sticker, we've got to accept that.

Well, that's that's good to know.

And do we know is their standards similar to what we're adopting potentially here, or are they what do you know about those?

To my understanding, DOLA works closely with DOE uh or C CEO um on those standards.

Um to the exact degree, I I'm gonna guess that they're probably not up to where Lafayette standards are.

Um but someone getting a modular home that was built in 2025, it's probably gonna be a lot more efficient than a modular home that was built in 1995.

Okay, thank you.

Mayor Proton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just to be clear, uh there were a couple things you mentioned that most of the developments are up to as close to the code that we could uh the 2021s as we could get them and some there are one of those uh that we got as close as we could, uh, and they're just gonna go with where they are at this point.

As you know, there's a lot to unpack about Sundar, but uh when we created the last the building code agreement, we did everything we could.

I mean, we we probably spent another two months uh going back and forth about uh where could they end up uh with relation to the infrastructure that they had already completed based on where our codes were right now?

Um and we I we think that we're confident that we're that we push them as far as they could to get them as close to the 2021 code package.

And all the new ones coming in will be every so Sundar phase two, uh the range, uh you name it, all of those will be on the 2024 code.

Okay.

Um that'll all be new construction, totally up to date.

Great.

And you also mentioned the uh EV standards were a little too high.

Didn't that push uh VASA a little bit over the edge with how many they would have been required to have?

Um so they had uh there's some language in our code that allows uh certain amount of trading off for the fast chargers.

Um they would absolutely comply with this code, they complied with the 2021 code.

Um, and we think the trade-offs were very fair that they got.

Great.

Uh and just one in your perception of what we're seeing.

There's uh do you see a lot of redevelopment happening?

And are these new codes challenged or are they gonna present more challenges in I mean I know this is for new development, um, but as the city, does the city look like it's redeveloping, even though we do have some um developments that are coming online?

We yeah, we I mean is it gonna kind of cause any hardship for in any way we see as we move forward?

So part of part of the benefit of adopting the the codes as an entire package and not just saying, oh, we want to go to the energy code, the updated energy code, but not the other codes, is that the ICC and all the uh committees that are part of it uh make painstaking efforts.

I mean, they they will go in two rooms for four days at a time, three times a year for probably 13, 14 hours a day to go through every section and ensure that all these codes are compatible.

Um there's going to be some measure of hardship no matter what when you alter a building that's of any age.

Um and that's just you know, there you're tearing out finishes that have been hopefully well installed.

Um, then you have to deal with the new technology regulations to uh you know integrate all those updates into the building.

Um so there's there's always going to be a certain amount of hardship.

Um what I will say is that historically the price of construction uh doesn't go down whether the code stays stagnant or not.

Um so keeping a pace with the technology does remain important and it helps us ensure that buildings are safe, as efficient as possible, and built to the current industry standards.

So it looks like we're kind of balancing out our uh climate action plan uh objectives with development needs, so uh we're in a good place as far as yeah, I I think that I think that we agree uh staff that um that we're we're holding to the spirit of the comp plan and the climate action plan with with these updates.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Counselor Jensen.

So after the Marshall Fire, um in places that weren't burnt, but that had some um ash and uh you know accumulated debris.

There seemed to be a lot of issues with the standard for cleaned up so that renters would move back in and they would be coughing, and you know, people were struggling and getting sick.

And I know uh the legislature did some things to address that.

How is that are we in a good place to you think with Lafayette so that if we were to have any kind of natural disaster and people were not rebuilding but fixing do we have standards for like HVAC and uh uh uh for making sure that because I would hate to see us have that same problem where people are getting sick when they're moving back into their houses?

Are are we do you feel we're in a good place with that?

As good of a place as we can be.

Yeah.

Um I I said it at SRAB last week, there is no way to legislate around this uh something like the Marshall Fire in a way that is going to be uh anyway cost effective to anyone.

Um so we we plan we create the most resilient plans that we can.

Um and then in those instances, um, you know, I know Louisville, Superior, uh Boulder County specifically, uh had to learn a lot and develop a lot on the fly.

Some of that uh was mitigating as you said, houses that were not total losses, but uh still were not necessarily livable, uh, like replacing insulation, uh you know, minor fire mitigation on walls, stuff like that.

And you know, that if something like that happened here, you know, we'd have no choice but to do that.

Um you don't necessarily create the regulations for that to happen.

Um and like I say, with you know, something to the magnitude of the marshall fire, there's just no way to legislate uh around uh having some sort of uh hardship that's going to happen for that.

But if something like that did happen, we would have to create new standards for refurbishing.

We have the standards in place.

Yeah, the standards would yeah, the standards would be in the code.

I mean, you know, the same as if there's uh a fire, you know, in a in a single property as opposed to uh you know an entire block or several blocks.

Um because we we do see uh fire repairs every now and then.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

I'm not saying any more questions.

Uh thank you so much.

Thank you.

So for us, that concludes our three presentations for tonight, our three agenda items, and we're on to the last, which is new ideas.

Um I had one idea, um but just in case I hope I didn't miss anything.

Is there anyone else who had anything for tonight?

Councilor Friday.

I did I don't know if tonight's the right night, um, especially since um Councillor Bullier is is uh not here.

But I do think revisiting our conversation around what are the things that we could do together agree to to try to keep our meetings from going until 1 a.m.

Um would be a good thing.

Um I had a good conversation with our city manager about a couple ideas that I think could work.

I know I think Councillor Bolier was working on some.

We talked about a couple.

Um so I do think there are things we could discuss that maybe would be kind of like incremental progress that we could see if it works.

Um but I would love to have that discussion with with the council um with staff's input too um at some point.

I don't know if it's right now necessarily or if we should uh make a plan now to sort of explore some of those ideas uh and then bring them back to this body.

Um but would love to not lose sight of that so that we can get some rest sometimes.

I'll second what you just said.

I I think that's a great idea.

I don't necessarily think tonight would be the right, which I agree with you as well.

Um, but I would love to just kind of continue to put this on the radar for our staff and see how we can kind of collaborate and see what the best way to get this circled back to us might be.

Because workshop meeting, I'm not quite sure what the uh proper venue for this would be, but I think it's a conversation we need to have.

Do you have ideas?

No, I'm happy to do that.

We can talk offline.

You know, one of the things Councillor Fridla and I talked about is kind of um what was provided was uh the big list, and so if you tier it into maybe I don't know, I hate to call it quit wins, but you know, kinda here's a few like things that we could try out.

Does it work or not?

Okay, no, like here's the next list, and so maybe if um have permission from council to maybe put something formally together with um counselor Fridlin and Councillor Bolier, then we could bring together like an actual something to respond to instead of like a wide open discussion if that kind of hones it in for council and can add it in.

Um we can look at the next meeting or the meeting after, depending on kind of where we feel like there might be appropriate time to discuss it so you're not also rushed through it.

Perfect.

I'm certainly supportive of that.

I'm willing to to volunteer my time for that.

Wonder if the counselor Bullier is as well.

Any thoughts from any other members of council?

I love that.

Thanks all.

Perfect.

And I would say to the rest of the council if you have ideas that you want to add to that long list that can then be sort of tiered, please.

Thoughts?

Good.

Great.

Thank you, everybody.

Great.

Uh is there any other ideas on the table, any other new ideas that I may have missed?

Or just I didn't okay, great.

I'll move on to mine.

Did you have something, Mayor?

No?

Okay.

I'm going to mine.

So this was something that our amazing city manager brought forward.

So as as we all know, we've been dealing with the cemetery um concern from our residents and just issues all together.

And I I certainly don't want to get into the policy tonight.

I don't want to get into trying to figure everything out tonight.

I don't think this is a proper venue for that.

Uh however, we I think I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that this is a difficult situation and it's something that we need to address.

Um the idea came forward of having a two-person subcommittee from this council um kind of take charge and figure out what is best.

Uh the idea behind this and the idea the the reason I love this is because well we all care about this greatly.

This is important to all of us.

But in terms of the conversations that we're having with community, I would like to make sure that we're having them in an efficient manner.

And rather than everyone having all these different conversations, I would like to focus those conversations and try to get the best results for our city and for our residents.

Um on top of that, as an example, um if we have a two-person subcommittee, the June 10th meeting, for example, is something that I don't necessarily think staff should be running, and that's I think it's up to council to be running those meetings.

I think it's up to council to kind of be deciding and hearing for residents and engaging with our residents uh as someone who loves engaging, uh as someone who uh truly believes that being an elected official, you one of your roles, one of your jobs, engaging with community, but also making sure that we have the best system.

Um we do this with other things, right?

Just for planning commission, we have a three a three-member um interview panel that then brings recommendations to council.

So this is an a great resource, maybe a little underutilized by this council, but I think it's something that I think would be a fantastic idea.

And what that two-person subcommittee can then do if we decide that they need to speak to someone who has expertise, so they decide that they should be the ones meeting with the state archaeologist, if they decide that they should be the ones talking to our community.

Whatever they decide and ultimately bring a recommendation towards council is I think the best way to go about this.

Uh I want to make sure that every conversation is actually getting us to a better place and giving us the results that we want.

Uh so I'll stop talking there.

I really just want to hear your thoughts on on a potential subcommittee, uh two person subcommittee that we choose.

And just the last thing I will say, because we have that June 10th meeting, I would love if we move forward with this idea to formalize that at our June 2nd meeting, just so we have those two counselors ready to go by the June 10th meeting.

So I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I guess I'm I'm just a little bit confused about what the ask is.

Are you interested in having a two-person subcommittee kind of take charge on this issue in particular?

I see.

And what will that two-person subcommittee be asked to do?

I think what we want to do.

So I from just from just every conversation I've had with counselors and with community, it sounds like we want to explore all options here.

It sounds like we are not quite satisfied with the answer right now.

We want to know what that answer might be.

But we need to do some work.

And this two-person subcommittee would be the ones responsible for doing that work, would be the ones who would go and do and speak and engage and talk and think things through, and then ultimately if they find uh what they find to be the best answer, bring that recommendation to council.

Counselor Johnson.

I I like the idea a lot.

Um because I think the public has been confused about when to talk to us and like they thought we were on the agenda last uh meeting and it wasn't.

And and so um yeah, a couple of people are more connected, you know, and making sure people know what the right steps are in the processes, I think would be helpful.

The one thing I'm concerned about in terms of coming to a solution is that we don't have expertise on our staff or on council in cemetery configurations, it doesn't seem and like um can we stack a casket on top of another?

Or if we were to do that, what conditions would need to be in place to make that work for us?

And it uh so the one thing I'm thinking is, and maybe this is part of what the committee would consider is do we need a consultant who understands some of these uh tricky Tetris taksaw puzzle kinds of things that we're looking at and knows the rules, knows how all of this works better than we do.

Uh and maybe that's the state archaeologist.

You know, maybe we don't need a consultant.

But some expertise, and maybe that's where we start is with a state archaeologist, and then see what she recommends in terms of what expertise we need.

Because I what I what I have heard from the community is just do it on a case-by-case basis, and if you run into trouble, deal with it then.

And that doesn't feel like a plan to me.

That feels like a just the archaeologist is just gonna yell at us again and tell us this is not what we need to be doing.

So knowing what our options are, you know, uh uh might require some expertise that we don't currently have, but maybe that committee can figure that out and suggest what expertise we might need to make good decisions.

I would agree, and I think that's the idea behind the subcommittee.

Counselor Giannolo, did I see you?

Council Bullock is Counselor Boulier.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh a few quick points.

One, I love this idea.

I think this is exactly uh the right way to proceed, and I think it'll help address a number of of the dynamics that we've been talking and grappling with the past few weeks.

Uh just a few thoughts.

One, I love the idea too, because I think it'll clarify points of contact and ownership.

Um I certainly don't want to be in the position of looking to staff when they're looking to us.

So I think clarifying who's on first then makes it uh you know, we have the responsibility to actually deliver.

Uh so I love that aspect of it.

I would suggest that we add a cemetery update at the forefront of the June 2nd agenda.

Simply since we know that there are likely to be a number of folks that come out that night to provide public comment, it might be good to lead with this to say, hey, here's an update on the cemetery, here is the letter that went out, uh preface you know the June 10th conversation, and then also discuss the subcommittee and then pivot to some of the public input.

That way, you know, we've addressed out of the gate some of the concerns that folks uh have raised.

You know, additionally, I'm thinking through I love your point, Mayor, about it probably not being appropriate for staff to run the June 10th meeting and that you know for council to have maybe a facilitation role, a guidance role.

But I think for me, something that I really appreciate staff taking another look at is reframing the June 10th from less of a informational meeting and more of a dialogue, right?

So more of that conversation with residents to make sure to counselor Jensen's points that we understand what the asks are, what the realm possible, and then we can go back and whether it's the state archaeologist or if it's another expert, or maybe we get a consultant, what have you, but we have a clear path forward to move out on and drive towards.

So I I really love what you put on the table and happy to support uh however need.

Great.

Thank you.

Mayor Brunson.

Is that when he said over?

I I think that's the end.

Over means it's your turn.

Over now, over and in.

Uh we're done.

Uh I I love the idea.

And I'm not sure how this is gonna go for the uh members of council, but I strongly feel that counselor bullier and uh our mayor should be the subcommittee too.

And I I know that adds an awful lot to your work, but I just have you know, having spoken to community and knowing we have you know a professional mediator and a critical part of this community on this council.

And I don't I again I don't I don't want to throw you under the bus, but I that's just how I feel is that uh it would be a good committee.

So just throwing that out.

I appreciate that.

I think we wanted to just get this and see if there was enough support to talk about it.

However, I will say I'm happy to be part of the committee if it comes to that.

I'm hearing support from most members of council.

So if you I'm supportive, I would just want to make sure that the folks on the subcommittee have the resources they need, right?

Like I I wouldn't want whoever's on it to be the facilitator of the June 10th meeting necessarily.

Like I think that's a tough role to be in.

That should be a professional facilitator or of some kind.

Um obviously council being really involved in that and helping with the conversation and hearing and being part of it, but having someone that's like dedicated as a facilitator.

So that would be my only like hesitation is I just you know it it's a it's it's a tough road.

It's gonna be a tough road, right?

And so I want to make sure that um folks feel ready and feel supported through resources.

Yeah, I I think that's an interesting point, though.

Should it be uh a neutral neutral party?

Not a staff, not a council, a neutral kind of facilitator in order to just make sure all voices are heard appropriately.

I concur.

The one problem I have with that is I don't know.

I think there's some different opinions about what's going to happen at that June 10th meeting, and we need very clear uh goal statement or mission statement for that meeting so that the facilitator knows what we're trying to accomplish.

I I do think in some way what the community has wanted to say to us is how important this is to them.

They and uh they have poured their hearts out to us, and I think we've heard that.

And I think getting to solutions is much more difficult than saying, yeah, we hear you, but if our hands are tied by the the physical logistics of what's going on at the cemetery, not to say that I there may not there are probably some options, but how many are there?

You know, if we could force in a few more, how many would that be?

And is that you know, the the first step might be to figure out how many people really want a plot there, how many people are left that actually wouldn't do any of the other options and would only accept a plot.

So how many people are we talking about?

And then within that, what are the logistics at the cemetery that we have to deal with?

Like, are there some spaces under the roads, you know, that we get but but we also know that some people want to be right next to their loved ones and a space under the road might not satisfy their concern.

So how do we get to all that and how do we work through those actual practical problems versus having the community feel we heard them because I I think at this point we heard them.

You know, we want to help them.

It's just hard to figure out how to.

If if I may uh I don't think we have heard them.

And that's part of what the this is for.

And the solutions are definitely something we've got to come up with.

But I don't want to get the cart in front of the horse.

I don't know if that may not work.

Uh but I I feel we have an object uh we have an obligation to not tell people what we're going to do, but to listen to them.

And I don't think we've done that yet.

So I I think this June 10th meeting is that moment for us to respectfully listen.

We represent them.

We also have you know responsibility here.

Um the amount of listening that is respectful to this issue.

So I uh I don't want to go down the road of trying to figure this, figure out what the answer is at this point before we've heard uh from the community what they think.

Uh and yeah, it's happened bits and pieces here and there.

But uh I I think this June 10th meeting is the time for us to set aside significant amount of time to fully understand where they're all coming from and and respectfully listen.

So I I don't know if the solution time is.

So you don't think that June 10th meeting is a solution-oriented meeting?

No.

I know.

I agree.

Divergent thinking first, maybe, right?

Bring everything bring everything to the table, right?

Let's hear everything and I don't know.

But the problem I have with that is that I don't think anybody's gonna be happy in the community until we can find a solution.

So as much as they may want to tell us their story and how sad it is, they'd be much happier if we could tell them we gotta fix for this.

They might not.

You don't think so?

They might not be happy with us telling us what us telling them what's gonna happen.

And I the divergent thinking, I think it's a piece that we it's not gonna be fun.

But we I think we der we are owe them the uh that opportunity.

And uh and from what I've spoken to, they understand what position we're in.

They know we're residents.

Um they know we're doing the best we can, and we owe them a little more.

I I feel me own them a little more time.

Well, that's interesting because I think you're sort of I'm sort of thinking the best thing we could do for them is find a solution.

But you're thinking that perhaps there might not be a solution, and then in that case, the best thing we can do for them is to hear them out.

No.

What I'm thinking is that we might learn what the solution is by talking to them.

I don't think there's I don't think anyone has the answer right now.

And uh this is complex enough that I I think that the what'd you call it?

Divergent thinking?

Divergent thinking, then convergent thinking.

I don't think we've diverged enough.

I have but I don't think conversations diverged.

Okay.

I think the mayor's asking oh, I'm sorry.

Okay, I guess so I agree with the recommendation to have a subcommittee and the two members of council that were mentioned.

I wanted to say that we only had some members of the community come forward at our last meeting.

And I know there is another large group planning to come to our June 2nd meeting.

So this meeting on the 10th needs to happen, and people need to have that outlet for to share their story, their family's story.

I'm wondering if the 90 minute period we've allotted is on the short side.

I know we have limitations given the closing time of the library, but I am expecting a very large turnout.

And this is where working with a subcommittee would be really simple so we can structure the stuff.

Can I ask a process question?

Of course.

Do we need to appoint the two people on June 2nd, or could we announce it and agree to it?

I mean, uh it's not really an agreement.

It's just like, hey, go ahead, like go and do this work.

I don't know if we actually have an attorney.

I think what we're envisioning is it would be similar to appointments for things like Dr.

Cod.

So if it happens on the second, then they're kind of in place and ready to go for the 10th.

Great.

Which I think is great.

We should certainly talk about it at a regular meeting.

I guess my thinking is the second to the tenth is quick.

And I would love for these two people with staff to have as much runaway as possible.

And so I mean, if we were able to at least like informally say, yes, go ahead and get started and we'll announce it, it would be valuable for that extra week.

Are you thinking like a straw poll tonight to see if there are any objections or people who withdraw their names?

That would be my to our to our mayor.

If if we thought that was possible.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

I'm getting uh all of counsel is in agreement with this.

Uh so a quick straw poll.

Counselor Bullier.

I will just want to confirm that you have been volunteered to do this.

Is this something that you could be?

It's an honor to be voluntary.

I I would be glad to serve.

Uh and just to reiterate, I would also love to serve uh and do this.

Uh just good counsel.

Good, bad, okay.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Sounds great.

Mayor, may I ask a question of the room.

One thing, you know, in the lead up to June 2nd, it might be interesting to circulate kind of this notion to the public that's coming to to potentially give testimony and kind of ask them what what they would really like the subcommittee and the wider city to to address beyond just, you know, to Councillor Jensen's point, you know, solve my problem, but what are things they really would like us collectively to grapple with to explain?

What are the gaps between where they are and where they'd like to be?

Um that way we could we could try to get some of those insights as well next week.

I think that's great.

Somebody get on subreddit.

And folks, I'm boarding the plane now, and so I'm gonna have to say goodnight, but I will be back in Colorado very soon.

Good night all.

Uh I think that's good night for all of us, unless anyone else has anything.

Meeting adjourned,