Well, it's an it's another beautiful night in Pueblo, Colorado, and I call this regular city council meeting to order.

Today is Monday, June 10th, 2024.

And we're gonna start with an invitation with Pastor Jim Urey from Pueblo Praise.

Pastor, we're gonna, if you want, stand with us for the invocation, and then we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance.

You can just yell.

Oh, thank you.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

Thank you for our city, the city of Pueblo, the growing city.

I pray that you would bless it.

Bless this council meeting, God.

All the leaders that are here, our mayor, Lord, our first responders.

I pray, Lord, as the city grows that you give this council wisdom, God, to take us forward.

And uh Lord, that um everybody that moves here and all the residents here, God would would just always feel your presence and be prosperous and grow in Jesus' name.

Congratulations to the United States of America and to the Republic.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Pastor.

Madam Clerk, roll call.

Mark Ayleth.

Here, Dennis Flores.

Roger Gomez, Joe Latino.

Here, Regina Meistry.

Here, Sarah Martinez here.

Thank you for that.

Uh I don't have any special recognitions.

We'll now go into public forum.

Uh, first up is Steve Viegas.

Vegas.

Welcome.

Thanks for coming tonight.

Push the button.

Okay, I just came to talk about a few issues that you know.

I just a few issues I see with Pebble, things I read, things I see, things I hear, things.

The first one is gonna be I I was uh taking a walk down uh the river walk to uh the running commuter trail, and when I took a walk and I went out to run it on my way back, I noticed families coming down where I was walking when I was coming back, and it's a beautiful walk.

You know, they got to invest in that place.

So that's a that would be tourism.

When I was walking, I noticed there were needles, there was trash, it was just filthy.

I don't think you know it was just like a bandit there, no one's ever cleaned it, and it was terrible.

So I called HARP, and I went down to HARP and I asked them if they were responsible for cleaning up, and they told me no, and they told called Parks a wreck.

So I called Parks a wreck and I told them and I asked them, you know, and I got the run around there.

And I didn't get nothing there, so I hadn't met Roger Gomez through Ted Freeman before he'd become before become uh part of City Council, and I called him up and you know, because he was pretty cordial when I first before he was uh before he was a councilman and I asked I tried to get him to you know maybe take a walk, I could show him the trash and you know little things I go, you know, that uh you know just has to be cleaned up, and like I said before he was elected, he was you know, you can talk to him, but afterwards, you know, when I called him, well, he told me that well, wasn't that concerned that I should run for city council and all I was trying to do was get the place cleaned up, so I said, Well, what do I do now?

You know, I've made my rounds, and you know, someone's you know, these kids coming through here, families, and it's supposed to be the focal point of Pueblo and all it looks like a ghetto down there.

So I called the mayor's office and I talked to her, and we she expressed her the person that answered the phone.

I was you know, I was trying to always explain it to her what I was trying to do, and I and she told me that she would talk to the mayor and the mayor to get back with me, and she'd get back with me.

And I she told me that she would talk to the mayor and the mayor to get back with me, and she'd get back with me.

And she called me, I don't know, half an hour later, and the mayor said that she said that they'd be cleaned up by the end of the day.

So just said, go, I went the next day, and I called the mayor back because it wasn't cleaned up, and she said, I thought it was a joke they're playing on me because nothing happens that fast.

You know, so then I called her and she gave me the parts of wreck, I called them and she sent them down, they got cleaned, you know, and it was just safer for the kids.

It was uh, you know, it was just had to be clean just because it's a focal point of publo, and that's what we're trying to do.

You know, if we can't keep what we got clean, why build more?

But it was clean, I was happy for that, so you know that was you know, I ain't got nothing bad to say yet about it, but I'm looking for some.

The next thing is the is the needle exchange program.

You know, I came here that night when they had the meeting when I heard and I was watching on TV, they had a set in the room, and I was watching it, and I was watching Joe Lacino gave his fiery speech, and I was watching everything that was happening, and I said it's not gonna pass, and I knew it wasn't gonna pass, so I just left and you know I had my name down to talk, and I woke up in the morning and I seemed that it uh it didn't pass, and that the needle exchange program was gonna go through.

And then I read that the speech, the fire speech study gave was all false.

You know, and it passed on a false presentation because everything I've read about the harm reduction thing was nothing but good.

There's nothing really bad about it.

It helps people, it helps those those in need.

It even worked better if we had like the pharmacies on east side of town, people had needles, they wanted exchange, they can go to the nurse pharmacy, nearest health center, take them there, get new needles, and I think it'll keep them off of the off of the streets because no one wants to get AIDS, no one wants to get uh hepatitis and all this kind of stuff that you get by sharing needles, but you know, when you're down down on your luck, you're down in and you share needles, and you know, you need that fix.

But if you had clean needles, you know, it was just all lies.

I'm ashamed of this council, and I'm ashamed of Joe Lutino and his fiery speech, all lies.

Mark Aloff being the president and allowing all those lies, no no representation, you know.