Recording in progress of the city of the COVID.

Today is Monday, March 13th.

The time is 722, and I call this meeting to order.

If we could have Pastor Ken Wood from the Avenue Church to the front for our invitation, if everybody will stand and stay standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the opportunity to gather here tonight.

God, we do want to pray for your blessings on this meeting.

We want to pray that you would give energy and discernment and vitality to this council.

God, we know it's already been a long day and we're missing that hour of sleep.

So God, just be with us today.

Lord, I pray for each citizen that's going to share a concern or something on their heart.

God, I pray that you would give them uh the words to accurately convey uh what you put on their heart, and I pray that you would give the leaders of our city ears to hear uh their concerns and God, we just want to lift up our city.

We want to lift up each one that serves it, uh, our police department, our fire department, our emergency services, God, our our maintenance, Lord, everyone uh that that shows up to work every day to make this city great.

So, God, we thank you for them.

We pray your protection uh over our city, and we pray for your blessings in Jesus' name, amen.

I pledge allegiance to the minutes.

Roll call, madam clerk councillor Tensio.

Here, Councilor Flores.

Here, Council President Graham here, Councillor Meistry, Councillor Martinez, Councilor Martinez Ortega.

Here, Councillor Winner.

Here okay, and we have a very special recognition tonight.

Um, the mayor is going to do a proclamation uh for Daryl Payne Day, March 13, 2023.

So if we can have Mr.

Payne to the front.

Darrell, thank you for joining us.

This is uh sort of a bittersweet moment for those of us in the city.

I'm sure that not very bittersweet for you, but uh Daryl will be living leaving his employment with the city in the next uh few days, and so we wanted to recognize him specially at this city council meeting because of the services performed for the city.

So let me read this proclamation.

It's a mayorial proclamation.

Daryl Payne Day, Monday, March 13th, 2023.

Whereas Daryl Payne has been a dedicated employee of the City of Pueblo since April 2020, when he was hired as the municipal records and technical coordinator for the city of Pueblo.

He has worked assertively, effectively, and steadfastly for many city councils throughout these years, and will have served the city for over 20 years at the date of his retirement.

And whereas Darrell has been the record keeper for the city, overseeing the historic records of the city of Pueblo through various moves and renovations of city buildings, ensuring resolutions and ordinances passed by city council or filed with complete signed documentation and recorded with the county.

And whereas Darrell has attended every city council meeting and work session throughout these 20 years, rarely, if ever missing a meeting, monitoring the ever-changing technology that allows for council presentations for the counselors, the mayor, and staff to be heard by those in attendance in person and online, and more recently to record the electronic voting record for items passed by council.

And whereas Darrell served as a key liaison between the public, elected officials, and city staff during the COVID-19 shutdown, dealing with operating new software and the challenges that came with it to allow continued communication and participation of the public community in the city council meetings.

And whereas Darrell continues to be called on by staff of multiple departments for his memory of ordinances passed and resolutions approved, and his service and knowledge will be greatly missed in the office of the city clerk.

Now, therefore, I, Nicholas Scratorsar, the mayor of the city of Pueblo, Colorado, by the authority vested in me to hereby proclaim March 13th, 2023 as Darrell Payne Day, and urge the citizens of Pueblo to join me in expressing our appreciation for Darrell's contributions, dedication, and service to the Pueblo community.

In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Pueblo, Colorado to be affixed this 13th day of March 2023, signed Nicola Spratosaur, Mayor of the City of Pueblo.

Darrell would like to present this to you.

Congratulations.

I sincerely appreciate this honor that has been bestowed upon me.

I I will say this.

We've all heard of a month of Mondays, we'll try 20 years of a month of Monday nights.

So I appreciate it all, and it was just truly my pleasure to serve the city and the citizens of Pueblo.

Thank you.

Thank you, Darrell.

Can we get the staff at the city clerk's office to uh come up for a photo?

Good job, Darrell.

Let me see the role, Darrell.

All right, so let me also say from my first day on the job, um, Darrell very clearly told me uh that he was going to be retiring in spring of 2023, and that I should try to get all of the knowledge I could out of him, but that I would never get it all.

Uh, and he was absolutely right, of course.

So um I did try to eke out as much knowledge as I could, but um myself and all of the different departments of the city are going to be very disappointed that you're not there at a phone call to ask, like last week when Parks called and said, Hey, you know, we need this signed agreement for we don't know when it was originally um put together, and Daryl said, Oh, I think that was July of 94.

I'll go look it up.

Or you know, you know, he he just has the knowledge for it, and of course he's right.

So uh we're definitely gonna miss you at the city clerk's office.

Um I know that I have asked a lot of you uh over the past couple years coming in here and uh updating the technology and uh changing everything on you.

Uh and although you may have threatened to retire early a couple times, uh you definitely got through it.

So um congratulations on your retirement.

I'm sure that I will see you at the Colorado State Fairgrounds for street rides or the rodeo.