A resolution amending the Denver City Council Rules of Procedure. Amends the City Council Rules of Procedure related to the general public comment session. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 2-8-22.
Thank you, Councilmember Kinney, and appreciate you calling this out because of the amazing work that the star team does. And how important it is for our city. And I appreciate you highlighting that a bit more for us this evening. Madam Secretary, if you wouldn't mind putting the next item on our screens, Councilmember Flynn, will you please put Council Resolutions 166 and 119 on the floor for adoption? Yes. Thank you, Madam President. I move that council resolutions 22, dash 0166 and 22, dash 0119, be adopted in a block. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded comments and questions by members of Council on Council Resolutions 20 2-0166 and 22, Dash 0119. Council members say to Barker. Yes. I called these out to go on record voting no for both of them. 166 is the council rules change that, in my opinion, solves a problem that wasn't well defined. It didn't explore other options to expand access to public comment. It didn't thoroughly engage the public in defining the problem or potential solutions, and it potentially punishes people for participating regularly. I think we've got a lot of issues with our public comment sign up to begin with and had an opportunity to really overhaul the current format and do something that is more equitable. And we did not meet that mark with this. And so I do not support this rule change tonight. The other contract, 119 is for the sole source provider that's been working with the Department of Safety on the psychological evaluations of DPD for over 20 years. We I called this out at the last opportunity. We voted on it, and it was highlighted that there are no people of color on this team. And we had a commitment from the Department of Safety to put this contract out for competitive bid. And from my understanding, it did not go out for bid. And here we are again with it in front of us. And no real resolution around the issue, the lack of people of color on staff and the sole source nature of the contract. So I'm a no for both of these tonight. Thank you, Councilmember CdeBaca. Next up, we have Councilmember Cashman. Thank you. 20 2-1 66. The rules change. When I brought forward the initial bill to begin public comment in front of this body in 2016, it was brought forth because the way I looked at it, we had 13 right members of city council working hard. We had, you know, some thousands of people working for the city, bringing up ideas. But, you know, at that time, there were probably 600,000 people in the city and county of Denver. And I just thought it might make sense that we have a regular session where we could hear from the public, because I figured there were probably a heck of a lot of good out ideas out there that we weren't hearing about. It was never intended for everybody to get to speak every week. But so we started off in 2016 agreeing to have a 30 minute public comment session before the first city council meeting of each month. And then about two years later, that that same council chose to expand it to the first and third meetings of each month, but continued the policy that those public comments sessions were not to be televised. Then this council decided not a long time ago to expand public comment to 30 minutes before each Monday night city council meeting , and we decided that there was no reason they shouldn't be televised. So now they're televised. I think it's evident that this council's behavior has been to expand the reach of public comment, and it has been said before, besides these 30 minute comments sessions which are admittedly not long enough to hear from everybody, you can reach us via email. You can you can reach us by in-person meetings, all kinds of opportunities to to make your ideas heard. My support of this is to try to give to broaden the ideas brought before this body. If it turned. I first of all, I don't expect that folks who would like to speak more frequently than once every so many weeks, I think people probably have pretty much the opportunity that they want. But if there's someone who hasn't spoken in a long time, they simply move to the front of the line. No one is prevented from speaking or signing up to speak, and I expect that adequate opportunity will make itself evident. And I also believe that if there this policy turns out to be other than intended, we'll take a look at it and be sure that people have a reasonable opportunity to speak to this body. That's my comments. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Councilmember Cashman. Councilmember Hines. Thank you. Council President May I ask Deputy Director Walker to provide comment on what Councilmember CdeBaca mentioned? The city. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And just a reminder for members of the public who are listening to the conversation. Councilmember Cashman was making comments on a bill on excuse me, resolution 166 around public comment. But now we're going to shift gears and we're now talking about Resolution 119. So go ahead, please, Laura. Thank you. And thank you for that, Councilman Himes. Laura Walker, deputy director of safety. And I just wanted to clarify that Nicolette Inflator was. A competitive bid. The Department of Safety performed that. Competitive process during 2020, and there were three awarded vendors. On that competitive process. So there was a selection for Nicolette Inflator. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Council president. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. And thank you, Councilmember Hines. Not seen anyone else in the queue right at this point is. Um, and I know we've got Council member CdeBaca. Go ahead, please. I see your hand is up. My question is for Laura, and it's clarity around who the other vendors were and what section or what slice of the work this contract is going to fulfill and why we chose to continue going forward with this contractor. I guess. So. Back in 2020, we did. Award. Three vendors and I can get you that there was four four contractors that actually bid. We awarded to three Nikola deflator. Dr. Jackson. And Jeremy Brower. Regarding if they do. Have the majority of the work within within the Department of Safety. So that's why we. Did. The largest amount and expenditure did get a new collective later. And so that's why we were seeking to. Increase a dollar spend. Of this. Contract. The other contractors at all. Have they ever been affiliated with Nicoletti? So. Can you repeat the question? Have the other contractors that were awarded the contracts, were they affiliated with Nicoletti at any point in time? I think we might need to have you repeat the entire question over again, Councilwoman. Have any of the contractors that were awarded the other contracts, have they ever been affiliated with Micheletti in the past? I believe Jeremy. Prior was, but I would have to go there on that. Thank you. That's it. Think. Okay. Thank you, Laura. And thank you, Councilwoman CdeBaca. We have no one else in the queue. And so, Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Resolutions 22, dash 0166 and 22, dash 0119. See the rocker? No, Clark. All right. Flynn. Hi. Herndon. Hi. Hi. All right. Question. Kenny Ortega. I. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Torres. I. Black. All right. Madam President, I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. One May 12 Eyes. 12 Eyes Council Resolutions 20 2-0166 and 20 2-0119 have been adopted. Madam Secretary, please put the next item on our screens. Councilmember Torres, go ahead with your comments on this 161, please.