Amends the process for approving contracts via City Council in order to save time and administrative costs.
Yes, sir. Mr. President, I move that council bill 371 series of 2015 be placed on be ordered published. It has been moved in seconding Councilwoman Ortega, your amendment. Mr. President, I move that council bill 371 be amended by inserting that intergovernmental agreement that require council approval or on line one of page two after the words, however, and before the word that. So if I can explain what this is. Just. We need a second person. Yeah, we got the move and we got the second time for comments. Councilman, I take it you're up. So what this amendment does is it will continue to keep inter-governmental agreements as to reading ordinances and separated out from the contracts. So although our attorney city attorney's office considers ideas intergovernmental agreement as contracts, this amendment would have IGAs and continue to be reviewed as they are today. So they will not fall under the language of this particular ordinance. It removes them and keeps them as a two reading ordinance. That's awesome. Thank you, Councilman Ortega. Any comment on the amendment? Governor Leavitt. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I just we had a long discussion of this in committee or one of the many committees that this was discussed in. And I think this is a worthy addition to the, uh, to the ordinance. If you think about it, you know, there's a a zillion contracts that pass across our desk. Most of them are uncontroversial. We've talked about that. The ones that do generate any controversy. And many of those actually are intergovernmental agreements. We treat them as contracts, but those are the ones that do tend to generate a little bit more scrutiny. So if those are the ones that fall into a different category, it makes sense that we treat them as a different category. And I think Councilwoman Ortega's amendment does just that. And so I'll be supporting that. Thank you, Councilman Levitt. Any other comments on the amendments for 371? Seen none. We're voting on the amendment. Madam Secretary, Raquel. Ortega. I. Brooks. I brown. I can eat lemon. Lopez, Montero, Nevitt. Hi, Rob. Hi, Mr. President. Hi. Madam Secretary, please close the voting. Announce the results. Tonight. Tonight, 371 has been amended. Now, counsel, whenever we need a motion to order published as amended. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that council bill 371 series of 2015 be ordered published as amended. Thank you. Comments. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. So when this particular ordinance was brought forward to committee that I chair, I had some concerns about. What was being asked of us, basically by taking all contracts from what is now to reading by ordinance to one reading by resolution. I supported the change to the rule and the amendment, but in general I do not support compromising our process. And when this was brought to us, we were told that we would save eight days in the contracting process and about $39,000. We were given different information today that related to staff time when we have people from the different agencies who have to come down here on Monday night when we were dealing with the issue. But technically these are salaried employees, so they're going to get paid the same whether they're here or not here. So I just think that with Denver being a strong mayor form of government that for city council to change the rules, to not allow ourselves to have the two reading time frame. And I do appreciate the amendment to the rules that Councilwoman Kim each brought forward, because if this does pass, that at least still gives any one council member the opportunity to hold it up for a week or to have it go back to committee. But I think in general, the contracting process, which I've had an opportunity to participate in when I was part of the Department of Human Services, where I had to do a number of contracts with service providers. First of all, there's no systematic way that every single agency does the contracts the same way in ensuring that as staff changes happen, that the new person that has to do the contract has clarity and understanding on all those procedural steps they have to go through with the vendors to ensure that, you know, what's being done is one agency is consistently being done in another agency. And until I see that all of that has been shored up and the shortening of the time frame is is one that, in fact, works for everybody. I'm not willing to support this ordinance change. So I just wanted to explain my no vote on the ordinance itself. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Lopez, you're up. Thank you, Mr. President. I think you've made a point. And the last the last time I spoke about it and the reasons why I to start with Councilman Councilwoman Ortega, I just think this is a power that we have that we've had for a very long time. And it's a very important process. We shouldn't forsake it. There's a reason why it kind of sit for two weeks. And when we've we've actually shined a light on some of these contracts, we had a validity to create some accountability. That's exactly why, again, there's a lot of bills that go through. There's a lot of contracts that go through. These are few and far between, but they are very important and I think we are doing ourselves a disservice and the legislative branch to be voting against our own process here. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Councilman Robb. Thank you, Mr. President. Two points at the time when in the eighties, when council achieved the power of reviewing contracts over $500,000, resolutions were used primarily the way we use proclamations today to take perhaps a legislative position beyond our own powers on a city council to recommend something to the state or federal government, or to commend a person who has served the city well, either as a private citizen or a city employee. And we didn't have the form of resolutions. So I don't see this as taking away as much power. Council didn't even have that option on the table when when they first gained that power. And as I explained before, I think we have ensured that the power is preserved through the rule change. The second point I would make is Councilman Brown and I served on a committee to try to speed up contracts through the city process. And the process has been shortened in terms of if everything goes barring human error goes as should go, it's a shorter process before we even do this. But the reason we did that good times or bad times aside, is to get the contracts on the street and create jobs sooner. And I think that's a pretty powerful reason to do this more than the filing fee. Or the publication fees of the ordinance. I think it really is about keeping people at work in this city, getting work done efficiently in the city. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Lopez, you know the comment. Yeah. I mean, not to why? I guess we are being argumentative again. Like I said, it's all hunky dory when you're part of the majority. It's all hunky dory. Hunky dory when it's, you know, when it's not of concern. But there's like I said, through the contracting process, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of politics involved. And women and minorities get the shaft. And we actually have had a study that was commissioned that showed even not to pick on the airport. I think we had a great airport and great staff there and here, but it showed that there was discrimination and show that there was not enough representation of those of those populations in our contracting process, the folks that are awarded contracts. And when you look at jobs, I'd love to take a look at how many jobs are created. I love for them to say that in every contract. And how many of those are going to Denver residents? Right. And so that's that's those questions are asked when somebody brings it up, whether it's a whistleblower on the inside, whether it's a member of the public, because we see so many of these come through, we can't catch all of them. And we need the time to be able to look at those. That's why that exists, because we need to correct that. We need to make sure that the process is fair. And we it's been proven that it hasn't been fair. And yes, we may have not had it since Denver was founded, but it is a process that a council of the people that represented the people agreed to do and agreed to take on. And, you know, it doesn't hurt us to stay a little longer on Monday night to get it done. Just ensure that equity. Right. And that's that's what it's about at the end of the day. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. All right. Any other comments on 371 as amended? Seeing none. Madam Secretary, roll call. Can each. Hi. Lehman. Hi. Lopez. No. Montero. I nevett. I. Ortega. No. Rob Brooks Brown. Hi. Mr. President. I. Councilman Ortega, your vote. Thank you, Madam Secretary, please. Because we've only announced the results. Eight eyes, two nays, 82 nays. 371 has been ordered. Published as amended. Well, Madam Secretary, I believe that was it. So we are now ready for the block votes. All of the bills for introduction are ordered published. Councilman Nevett, will you please put the resolutions on the floor for adoption and a block? Yes, sir. Mr. President, I move that the following resolutions all series of 2015 be adopted in a block council resolution for 86 for 80 7409 for 31 and for 32. Got them all seen? No comment. Madam Secretary, roll call. Brooks Brown. I can each layman. Lopez, Monteiro. Nevitt. Hi, Ortega. Hi, Rob. Hi, Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please close the voting results tonight. Tonight, as resolutions have been adopted in a block. Councilman Levitt, will you please put the bills on final consideration on the floor for final passage? With the exception of Council Bill 430, which establishes a capital grant fund as part of the intergovernmental agreement regarding I-70, East Project Council will vote to pass Companion Bill 430 later tonight after the conclusion of the one hour courtesy public hearing on Council Bill 381 as amended approving the intergovernmental agreement regarding Montclair and Park Hill Basin drainage improvement and I-70 transportation enhancements. Got it. Mr. President, that's accountable for 30, is that correct? Yes, sir. Okey doke. Thank you. I move that the following bills all series of 2015 be placed on final consideration and do pass in a block. Those would be Council Bill 389 three 9391 392 393 395 429. 406 414 415 419 for 25 to 37 394 327 328 329 three 3331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 389 422. Got them on. It has been moved in second hand. See? No comment, Madam Secretary, roll call. Brooks, I. Brown. I can eat. Lemon. Lopez. I. Monteiro. I. Nevitt. Ortega. Hi, Rob. All right. Mr. President, I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and have the results tonight. Tonight, the bills placed on final consideration do pass and block one lengthy pre recess announcement. Tonight, there will be a combined required public hearing on Council Bill 312 as amended approving the text amendments to the Denver Zoning Code, creating the Scottish Village Conservation Overlay and Council Bill 313. Changing the zoning classification for multiple properties, roughly bounded by 32nd Avenue, Clay Street, Dunkeld Place and Zuni Street. A combined required public hearing on counter Bill 319 as amended, approving a text amendment to the Denver Zoning Code, creating the Potter Highland Conservation Overlay and Council Bill 321. Changing the zoning classification for multiple properties, roughly bounded by 38th Avenue, Federal Boulevard, 32nd Avenue and Zuni Street. A combined required public hearing on Countable 322 as amended, approving a text amendment to the Denver zoning code, creating a side interior setback, design overlay and Council Bill 323.