A resolution approving a proposed Third Amendatory Agreement between the City and County of Denver and Western Stock Show Association for allowing the City to use the National Western Hall of Education for people experiencing homelessness. Amends a license agreement with the Western Stock Show Association by adding $835,000 for a new total of $1,685,000 and one month for a new end date of 8-15-20 to license the National Western Complex Hall of Education for use as a men’s auxiliary shelter due to the COVID-19 pandemic (FINAN-202055360-03). Councilmember Black approved filing this item on 7-23-20.
Absolutely. Yep. Okay. Perfect, Councilman. Thank you, Madam President. Just a quick and dirty four from Chris. What is are. Can you go down the list with shelters and motels and the two different types of motels? And tell me, how many beds do we have total and how many are currently vacant? I can't do that. From the flash card memory I had, I can certainly follow up with a more detailed response. What I can say is, in broad strokes of proportion, again, about one third of individuals stay within motels, and within that third of individuals, they're staying in motels. The overwhelming majority of those are staying as a protective measure for long term stay within motel. So looking at identifying those aged 65 and older with an underlying health condition, who we want to move them in motel room regardless of a diagnosis with COVID, because we we know that if they were to get a virus, it would they may well succumb to the disease. I think the last time I glanced at the number of people we had in motel room for actual activated respite, which is a shorter term motel stay for somebody who does have a diagnosed COVID condition that lasts for the duration that that disease may be contagious with the person. So thinking about that two week period, those are reduced to the smaller end of double digits. So 17 to 20 individuals within that. The last I checked, I can I can get to the finer points on kind of the motel categories that we use. And we can better understand. A rough, rough estimate. How many shelter beds do we have in the city of Denver? The rough estimate for auxiliary shelters at Northwestern and Denver Coliseum right now. The rough estimate is a thousand. We know we have 300 at Denver Coliseum. I think we have capacity to go up with social distancing to I believe it's like 760 or so at Denver Coliseum. But we don't serve up to that high number. We had a thousand so that the thousand is our current congregate shelters. But is that. The thousand of it. Is that including all of our shelter beds in Denver? No, no, that's including the auxiliary and national western. I think. One. Way to get it and I have this just on my text last I looked for available beds each night was for a two week period between the ninth and the 22nd. And to give a perspective there, we had on average 543 beds that were available. So that includes the on the campus between Denver Coliseum and National Western Center. It also includes looking at 48 Avenue shelter, which has been activated. And we have a capacity of about 250 there. The reason that I appreciate your forbearance, but the reason that I have for making that harder to drill down is the lot of numbers that were associated with our facilities pre-pandemic no longer apply because we're reorienting them for social spacing and reducing the capacity numbers that are within them. So there's still a looseness as we try to factor what is the appropriate number for a facility with social spacing has. We're backing into that, but we're following that that CDC approval for at least six foot spacing in between. I bring it up because I think it's critical for us to have an exact understanding of how many beds are available citywide, whether that be in shelters or in motels, because we have a court order that says we should not be sweeping people if there are not enough beds. And so even if there are 500 beds that are not being used at a shelter, what the city only has 1000 beds available. And we know at a minimum there are 4000 people on the street. I think that that has some larger implications. So if you can get us those numbers, that would be helpful. And that is all of my questions for for you. Thank you, Mr. Connor. I appreciate it, Councilwoman. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next up, we have Councilwoman Canete. Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to ask for clarification from the host team. So we have two questions. One is, what was our preference in terms of the length of the National Western Center? Is this contracting ending at our request or the request of the the host facility? So first, want to ask about would we have extended if we could have could we have extended that we try to extend. This was the timeline that was negotiated with the owners of the facilities for our use. We did have some conversation around potential beyond this, but this was the outcome of the negotiation as far as their interest in using the facilities for this purpose as part of the contract. I hear you're trying to be very careful and I respect that. But would we have extended if we could have? We would have. Evaluated the opportunity if we could have partnered with them to look on that. Okay. Gotcha. Second question, since this has been called out for a vote, what happens if this contract fails? There's the does the facility need to close immediately since this is an extension we're voting on? So if the contract fails, does that mean the shelter closes sooner? I just want to clarify the meaning of our vote tonight. Or it's Lisa. Can I jump in. Please? It would sense the time. You're right. But it would also have our responsibilities of restoring and repairing the damages to the building that we need to return back to its existing condition. So let me clarify. We have an existing lease that has existing obligations to return the facility. So is there a risk that we would be in breach of those agreements if we didn't sign this agreement that details how that will be carried out? Correct. Okay. So it's. Not that we don't have the responsibility if we don't do this contract tonight, we already have. The responsibility. Yes, that would be correct. Okay. Thank you. No further questions, Madam President. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. All right. Thank you, everybody, for answering the questions. And Councilmember Sawyer, will you please put Council Resolution 749 on the floor for adoption? Yep. I actually just have one other one last, final question in response to Councilwoman Kenney inches question, and this might be for real estate, I guess I'm just a little bit confused. I wish someone from National Western had maybe been here to answer some questions as well, because I guess I don't understand how 400 homeless individuals could be causing more damage to bathrooms than 650,000 users. I'm a little confused about that and I would like someone to answer that. We're going to be on the hook for renovating their bathrooms. Chris may want to respond as well. What I will say is that what we have found, certainly my involvement as we've owned a shelter, that there is a very heavy use in fixtures and the repairs are not necessarily surprising to me. So, Chris, I don't know if you want to share. Nor nor are they to me. One thing that I'd I'd maybe suggest is that the the National Western Center has been providing a residential solution, so not non event based solution. So every one of the individuals who we've been accommodating has been utilizing the facilities multiple times a day. I would say and the majority of our guests can navigate using those facilities just fine. I would be remiss to say without no, I don't want to to arrive as stigmatizing. But the reality of it is we do have behavioral issues within the population that we work with. Where I mean, in particular is a facility issue that that requires special attention in the facility. At our 48th Avenue shelter facility, for instance, we installed something and you'll forgive me as it's around dinnertime for folks who may be watching, but we installed something called a muffin monster that essentially grinds up anything and everything that you could put through the pipes. That's that's includes fabric. That includes plastic and glass bottles. That includes metals in those kinds of things. Because because of the heaviest use facilities that provide a shelter and assistance to people in homelessness need to be created and equipped as very, very durable, hard used facilities. And so much like Mr. Lumley, I'm not too surprised that the plumbing issues through the course of our stay has has burdened the National Western Center and require repair. Okay. Thank you. I think Councilman Hines had one more question. Or I was going to ask if it was okay. If I go to his final question and then we don't quite have this on the floor yet, so. Okay. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Madam President. And thank you, Councilmember Canady, for your for your questions. And your questions created a question of mine, too. I thought that the city tried its best to because we are obligating taxpayer funds to be maximally determinate on the amount that when when city council approves a funding request that we prove that funding request and don't. Create a create a blank check. So I guess this might be for real estate. I'm I'm curious as to how, in most cases, city council obligated itself to at most dollar amount and not a blank check. And yet in this case, we obligated ourselves to a dollar amount and then a blank check. Councilman, you are right that we would normally try to identify all of the costs right up front. This is an agreement in a situation where some of these repairs, there is no way for us to have known. We also had not intended originally when the lease was a license agreement was negotiated to be here as long as we are. Which factors also into. Maybe some of the additional repairs that we now need to make. Oh. Okay. I mean, I guess I'm not sure necessarily what kind of answer I expected. I'm not sure I am satisfied with that answer. I am pretty sure that I don't think that this is the right venue to demand the right answer right now. So perhaps we can chat about that at some point in the future. I just want to make sure that if we're committing taxpayer funds that we know that we can be open and transparent about to the people who elected us what we're committing to. And and we don't say we're giving you these funds and oh, on the back end we might give you more funds. So I just, I, I understand the situation that we're in now. I just I want to make sure that I can be as transparent to the people who elected me. Well, everyone in my district, including the people who didn't elect me. And and so that's I guess that's just a larger question that I have that may not be specific to this particular contract. So thank you, Madam President. I just want to add one point. I appreciate all of the questions related to the costs, and I understand and agree with Lisa's point as far as not being able to necessarily anticipate some of the repairs that have come with the scale of this use. So I would just say, as you're considering this contract, that there are resources as part of this extension are reflects the obligation to bring the facility back to the state that it was prior to our use. So they're important resources as part of that contractual term, but it's also important for us to be able to have enough time to make the transition out of this facility strong with the steps that Chris outlined earlier or so, giving us the time in August to connect back to some of the facilities where if this did not pass, that runway would not be long enough to make the appropriate connections for folks to existing and planned facilities. So just want to reiterate the importance of the time and resources as part of this extension to both uphold that contract and also make sure that we're supporting a strong exit of the facility for the guests that utilize our services. It's been a thoughtful plan that's been outlined by Chris to support residents who are moving to other facilities. And we want to make sure that that's a strong process and well supported for guests to make. All right. Thank you. All right. Councilman Sawyer, will you please put Council Resolution 749 on the floor for adoption? Got it. I move that council resolution 20 dash 0749 be adopted. That can. All right, great. It has been moved and seconded comments by a member of council. Council member sawyer. Thanks so much. I, i, i have my concerns about this. I understand why it is important that it move forward, but I am going to go ahead and vote now. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Roll call. Sawyer? No. Torres, I. Wow. I. CdeBaca, I. When I. Herndon. I. I. Question. I h I see all. I. Council president. I am secretary. Close the voting and announce the results. One night an ice. Ten ays Council Resolution 749 has been adopted. The next item up is Council Resolution 597. Councilman and CdeBaca, please go ahead with your questions on this resolution. Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to call this one out and 598 out just to ask questions about how these two entities are providing services that are reimbursable. We have lots of contractors and I'm just not sure what exactly they're doing. So for Liberty Waste Management, where where are they operating and what makes their service covered reimbursable? Thank you, gentlemen. See you back. This is Chris Ulrich with General Services. I cut out I had to re logon to zoom for the. First part of your question. But I believe. You're asking what makes services reimbursable for FEMA expenses? Is that correct? What makes these two particular contracts reimbursable? Ross and Liberty. Thank you. So the services that are being provided in addition to their regular services, we have three levels specifically for COVID 19. So for the Liberty Waste, we have deployed a number of hand-washing stations that are specific to kind of help mitigate the transmission of COVID 19 among the public and including those affected by homelessness. In addition, we have also deployed additional portable toilets throughout different parks in other parts of the city. As Scott had mentioned in committee, again, to kind of help spread or not spread, keep the spread, keep the COVID 19 from spreading throughout the community. So that's kind of how these two are applicable, is providing those extra services, including hand-washing stations and the portable toilets. They are reimbursable expenses, Roth Property maintenance, because we have added disinfecting and high touch area cleanings. Those items also become reimbursable under FEMA. And so we have worked with our FEMA coordinator to really understand what it what can be reimbursable and really the process for getting these items reimbursed. And so by that language, it allows you to then go ahead and submit very detailed invoices. Those services that we can. Get reimbursed in. Got it. And so Roth is just our cleaning company, and Liberty is doing that for the bathrooms and hand-washing. That's correct. So Roth is our regular citywide janitorial contractor, excluding Dan. So, yes, they do clean all of our city facilities and have up that disinfecting and correct the clear selections, agreements for portable toilets and hand-washing stations citywide. Got it. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Madam President. Just one question. If we wanted to add in washing stations and portable toilets, I know that some of my constituents are asking for them. Can we expand this program and expand FEMA reimbursement? And if so, would that be additional vote for that would come before city council? That's a great question. So under this contract, we can add facilities, additional sites that are citywide without having to amend. We already have the ability to do so. Which is how. We were able to already add those hand-washing stations and portable toilets. So if that is something that you would. Like to pursue as part. Of your office, you and I can kind of have that conversation online to talk about the process for doing so, right? It's as simple as we get a quote. We know that funding initially, whether we can tie that just to our special revenue fund, which I assume we would and do those things reimburse schools. So that's a conversation that we can kind of have to to add those. But it's a very easy thing for us to add. I would be interested in that. So thank you. And thank you, Madam President. All right. Thank you. Councilman CdeBaca. Just real quick. Thank you, Madam President. How many do we have in Civic Center Park right now? A great question. Let me look at my spreadsheet and I can give you. So in Civic Center Park, it looks like we have a total of three hand-washing stations. And porta potties. I do not see that we have portable toilets in civic center, at least not on this spreadsheet that I have. Unfortunately, I don't think Scott Gilmore was able to make this meeting. Awesome. While we will be pulling together a request to get some of these out in the communities. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman, are you good on 598 as well? Okay, great. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have council resolution 6680. Councilwoman say to Berkeley, go ahead with your questions, please. So we have the power to waive the accrual of interest. I'm wondering if there's power to waive the taxes themselves and in what cases we would be able to do that. So. Good evening, City Council. Thanks for having me. And Councilwoman CdeBaca. No, we do not have the ability to waive the taxes. Property taxes are governed by state law, state constitution, the Colorado Revised Statutes. So there are specific laws and regulations in place that govern govern that in the city does not have the ability to choose to tax or not tax specific property owners. So what gives us. The authority to waive the interest accrual? Late in the session, the Colorado General Assembly passed a statute authorizing counties. To. Waive late interest for a payment interest on late payment of property taxes for this year, only a result of the COVID in the timing of COVID rates to when the property. Tax payments were due. And so is there any have we made any accommodations for people who can't afford to pay their property taxes right now? What what exists to be able to help people get their houses out of delinquent status right now without first having to come up with the money to pay their taxes. So from a property tax collection, the city has has no programs in place to assist. So basically what we have between. June 15th, which was. The second half payment deadline and October, which is when the tax sale takes place, we reach out to the property owners. Provide them delinquent. Statements, and give them the opportunity to pay the taxes up until October when the tax lien sale goes into process. So does the mayor have under his emergency powers, emergency authority? Does he have any power to change retroactively the taxation rate that we selected as a city? I do not know the answer to that question. That would be a question I'd have to have city attorneys opine on. Has there been any other circumstance in our history of a time when a tax rate was selected at one point in the year and something happened and that tax rate was retroactively changed? Not that I'm aware of. So there's essentially no relief at all at the city level for business owners and resident at property owners related to property taxes. Not not through. The Department of Finance. I'm not aware I'm not sure if Human Services or some other city agencies have programs in place to assist folks that are struggling with making making payments on whether it be property taxes or rent or what have you. But the Department of Finance does not administer any programs to provide that kind of assistance. Councilman, this is Kiki Turner Communications for the Department of Finance. Building off of what Steve said, that partment of Human Services does administer a property tax relief program. So I'm sure I can help. Follow up with them and get some on on on that program. It's the rebate and that is I brought it I said, without having to pay their taxes first because in order to get the rebate, you have to front the payment for the taxes first. So if that's the program, I'm already connected. But thank you. And that concludes my questions, Madam President. Thank you, Councilwoman. We have Councilman Hines up. Thank you. Madam President, it is the hindsight of Oscar show tonight, I guess. But so my question is. I believe that property taxes are allocated or they are earmarked for entities. And this is part of the reason why we are required to collect them for state law. And so I want to verify that what I think is the case is actually the case. And specifically, I think 65% of property taxes go to DPS, Denver Public Schools, is that right? It kills behinds. So from 65% of Denver's property tax goes to Denver Public Schools, and there are several other special districts that administer a property tax. And then there are other components of the property tax. Denver's. Denver has a piece of the overall property tax mill levy that that we administer. But you're correct, well over 65% goes to other entities, not the city and county of Denver. So if we didn't collect property tax in the first place, Denver public schools would be an even more financial trouble than it already is. Does that? If they did not remit the funds back to Denver. I'm sorry, I'm making a value statement. How? But I take the value out of it and make it a factual statement. If we did not collect those property taxes, then Denver Public Schools would not get a significant portion of its funding for for the school district . Correct. Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Madam President. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Okay. See no other questions on resolution 680. We'll move forward. We're moving to additional questions. And Councilwoman CdeBaca, you had a question on Council Bill 665. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam President. Lisa, is it possible for you to let us know how many leases are affected and if it's not a long list? Could you read us who those leases are with? Oh, give me 1/2. Let me just pull one up. It is with 50 to 80 enterprises. We have two of those locations, that is Subway, we have coffee, etc. Gosford. We have the Denver Center for Performing Arts. We have Giant Corporation HP or it should be convenience, which is Brussels in the world building National Western Center Authority . And I think my last one would be the Wiltshire Events Center. And so what is the, the total. Amount of dollars that we are going to forego in these negotiations. Councilwoman, I need to be clear that actually this is not rent forgiveness. This is rent that will be added all on the back side of their terms. So their term is extended and there and is and it actually then is stepped up to reflect that. So they will be paying actually a little bit more at the end of the term than they would right now. I do not have the total dollar amount per month, but I can get back to you. Awesome. Thank you. That concludes my questions. All right. Thank you. Up next, we have Council Bill 676 and councilman say to go ahead with your questions, please. Thank you, Madam President. Just curious about the language in this. Multiple small impact changes. Is there anybody who can speak to what that language means and what we're talking about here? Hi. It's Susan O'Neal from our class in com. And every six months we put in. Two of these. Small impact changes through city. Council. It's a protocol. That we established a few years ago. For studies. The impact. The impact is. Less than 50,000. It doesn't affect more than 25 employees. There's no more than five classifications and there's no more than three city departments of agencies. And so who who are the. What are the titles? The five. You said no more than five. Right. And so this there were 15 classifications that were changed up. There was an outreach trainer, a revenue development series, a criminalist series. The development of a real time crime center technician lead an infrastructure program manager, a photo enforcement agent, too, because we really had a one time chief and deputy chief, probation officer, forensic director and forensics manager. So those were new titles. A deputy monitors deputy monitor, project inspector supervisor. Emergency service worker, a new classification. For the COVID and then Applications. Support Administrator Specialist. We have a. Right of way inspector series and a business license inspector supervisor. And then the city clerk administrator. Got it. Do we have a. Total dollar amount of the impact. Of these changes? No. We look at them as a whole. I could get back to you on what they are amounted to, but each one, each study respectively wasn't anywhere near $50,000 in costs. Some of them are a couple hundred, maybe. Most of them were probably nothing because of. The new classifications. Awesome. Thank you very much. That concludes my questions. Thanks. Thank you. We have an additional question. Councilman Sawyer, go ahead. Thank you, Madam President. As I was. Looking over these. Today in preparation, I was looking at the outreach trainer classification and it looks like it might be switched because it says in the description that it is removed. It's about abolishing the hourly classification. But then when it talks about the pay grade changes right below that it has the current pay grade as the salary and the proposed pay grade as the hourly. So I don't know if somebody wants to go back and take a look at that, but it looks like maybe that was just switched around inadvertently. So just thought I would bring that to someone's attention before it went through. Thanks. So what actually happened with that one is that it was classified as an exempt level position. As an hourly. And that's an oddity because we want them to be nonexempt. So that's why the classification changed. An 809 is an exempt classification and it was moved to an A 621 and the 600 depicts the nonexempt hourly classification . So it was a good clean up from an FLSA perspective. Okay. So where it where it's in the what it's it doesn't look like that's what it says in the actual description. Or maybe I'm just still confused. Well, the whole thing is confusing when it comes to classification. Which is totally true. But as long as you guys. Have it right, I mean, you're the expert, so that's great. I just wanted to check on it before it went through, so that's great. Thanks. Very good. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Councilwoman Sawyer. All right. Next up is Council Bill six, six, eight Council member Sawyer, will you please put Bill six, six, eight on the floor for final passage?