A proclamation recognizing and celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Denver and Takayama, Japan; the 40th anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Denver and Nairobi, Kenya; and the 20th anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Denver and Axum, Ethiopia.
Whereas Denver, Colorado. On Takayama Gifu Prefecture, Japan established a city relationship on June 29th, 1964, a mutual benefit of each city. And. Whereas, Denver, Colorado and Nairobi, Kenya established a sister cities relationship on March 2nd, 1975, and the mutual benefit of each city. And. Whereas, Denver, Colorado and Axum, Ethiopia establish a sister city relationships on January 25th, 1995, for the mutual benefit of each city. Whereas the City of Cities relationships between Denver, Tacoma, now Nairobi and Aksum have expanded the cultural vibrancy of these cities through local and global programing. And. Whereas, Denver, Tokyo and Nairobi and Axum have hosted other adult student educational and tourism exchanges in both direction, expanding the knowledge of each of each other's cultures. Whereas the medical communities of these cities have benefited from advance educational exchanges, hospital support and voluntourism. Whereas, the sister city relationships have directly catalyzed important development for Denver sister cities, including nonstop flights and expansion of trade. And. Also, whereas, the municipal governments of these cities have been enriched and strengthened through exchange and ideas. Idea sharing. Whereas, the sister city relationship of other important cultural connections through Japan, Kenya and Ethiopian diaspora communities in the Denver region. And. Whereas, the friendship that exists between Denver and a sister cities grows and grows stronger each year and is of value and is valued deeply. Now, therefore, be a proclaim by the Council of the City and County of Denver, Section one. The Denver City Council heartily recognizes and celebrates the 55th anniversary of the sister cities relationship between Denver, Colorado and Tokyo, Japan, and the 40th anniversary of sister city's relationship between Denver, Colorado and Nairobi, Kenya, and the 20th anniversary of Denver Sister City's relationship between Denver, Colorado and Axum, Ethiopia. That the clerk of the city and the county of Denver shall a test and fix a seal of the city and of city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that the copy thereof hereof be transmitted to Denver Sister Cities International. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. Your motion to adopt. I thank you. Mr. President, I move that proclamation 691 be adopted. It has been moved and seconded. Comments. Councilman Brooks. Thank you. This is you know, when I first came on the city council, before we got inaugurated in 2011, a very large individual who we all know by the name of Wellington Webb said, You know, I can't even use his voice. I was going to try and use this word for I can't do it. He said, You know, whatever, whatever you do, I really don't care. But it would be really nice to see the sister city relationships that we have, the 12 sister city relationships invigorated again. When I left office, it kind of fell off and so I began to do research and it was true. We actually had global offices all across the world. I mean, you know, Mayor Mayor Webb really believed in connecting with the rest of the world. And he was probably a little bit ahead of his time because now the world is flat and globalization has happened and countries no longer trade. Cities do. And so this was a project that our office took on, and it happened to be the city of Nairobi. And we went on a trade mission to Nairobi, not knowing what the heck we were doing. And we went out there with, you know, when you do trade, it's not about the city, it's actually about the region. And so we had a CFO from level three, Sunit Patel with us. We had some nonprofits. We also had Navin Dhiman, who was in the hotel business, and we went over there and built a relationship. With Nairobi. And on our first mission, I had a multimillion dollar investment with level three into Nairobi. And it was just an incredible opportunity to understand and and exchange ideas around education, exchange ideas around economic development, exchange ideas around government policies. And I've seen firsthand how much the relationship works and is the launching pad to so many other issues and things. So that's why I'm such a believer in Denver sister cities and we as a city don't invest that much into our Sister Cities program. But the return on investment is quadruple. And so I will always be an advocate doing budget season for Denver sister cities and and making sure that we do have that global reach. And we are talking to our friends and neighbors. I wanted to touch on, you know, Takayama was key in the in our inaugural flight and building those relationships. And I believe the mayor has has been. Has the mayor been out there, been out there to meet the mayor as well and as well as Aksum, Ethiopia, which as we look at our global nonstop airfare and we look at potential cities, most people don't know. But Aksum is a city that we are considering, and we have an incredible population of Ethiopians here in this region. And Africa is a sleeping giant economically. And so I think it is wise for for Denver to connect there one day. And so I thought I would I really only know a little bit of Swahili. I don't know the other languages, but I'm gonna try and just say hi in each of the languages and then we pass it on to my other colleagues. But in Swahili, if you recall, you'll say near Haji. That means what's up? If you are just off the plane and you just can't go on a safari, you probably say jumbo. And if if if, you know, you have a little understanding about East Africa, you say Abadi. And in Ethiopia, if you kind of green like me, you say Salaam. Salaam. Is that right? Okay, good. Shaking the head. And then everybody knows in Japanese. Konichiwa. So we are grateful to be to have relationships and we want to continue to grow them. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Councilman Brooks, Councilwoman Black. About 40 years ago, my father was on the board of the Sister Cities program and developed a relationship with Brest, France. And as a result, when I was growing up, we had a man who was in graduate school, live in our house from Brest, France. He worked for my father, and over all of these years, my family has remained close to their family. Their children, their nephews and nieces have all come to live with us. They've lived all over the country and with my family members. And it's been an incredible experience having those strong family connections to Brest, France. And I have told Councilman Brooks and the mayor that I hope to also reinvigorate the program also with Brest, France. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Katherine Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, I'd like to have my name added to the proclamation and just mention that I've had an opportunity to go to Takayama, which is a beautiful city. I know one of our other sister cities that's not mentioned. Here is the city of Cuernavaca, which I've also had the opportunity to travel to. And I can remember under Mayor Webb, we actually donated a truck, a fire truck to the city of Cuernavaca. And Councilman Hiawatha Davis was the one who brought forth the adoption of the city of Aksum, Ethiopia, to be added to the sister city program. So we've had long and rich history with these relationships with other countries, and I think it is important that we continue to celebrate and expound on those efforts so that we can. You know, it's a smaller world today than it used to be. And our airport has played a major role in that process of bringing us all closer together and the fact that we have people where we can go to these cities and be able to reach out when we're doing expansion of direct flights and creating business opportunities. And I know with some of the communities in Japan, we've actually had some cultural exchanges where we have students from each city travel to both cities. And so those kinds of opportunities, I think, go a long way in building bridges between, you know, our country and our cities and those cities and those countries. And I think it helps work towards a greater appreciation of how to get along with one another. And so, Councilman Brooks, I want to thank you for bringing this forward and let's go forth and see how this can keep growing. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega, Councilwoman Gilmore. Thank you, Mr. President. I also wanted to thank Councilman Burks for bringing this forward. I believe building the relationships with other. Countries. Is very important and it's very personal. My children are quarter Japanese and we just got done hosting a Japanese. Exchange student, Heena. Sato, who will forever be one of my children for ten months in our home. And that relationship will always be there, it will always grow. And I look forward to working with all of the different sister cities to make sure that we're able to host students here in the United States and building that cultural competency, I think , for our families. But then also for those students when they go. Back, because it really opens. Their. Eyes. But ours as well. And so. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Espinosa. Please add my name to this proclamation. And I'm just going to speak just because it's just coincidental. And I'm my butcher some languages in the process. But prior to entering council, I was doing affordable housing development, particularly in Stapleton. And the models of the units that we're building are actually have derivations from the languages from all three of these cities that are recognized. So because of that coincidence, I'm going to go ahead and mention and we could be totally wrong in our research, but the models are Koti, Uchi and Bette, which. Hit all those generally those areas. I got some nods. And one of the other models since you mentioned Cuernavaca is also the CASA. And that was by design. We're trying to we were trying to make an inclusive product and bring introduce a little bit of diversity into Stapleton. A little bit more diversity into Stapleton. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilmember. Sponsoring the proclamation. I think we've discussed a few times about how we expand this program, how we participate, but mostly how we expand it and how we develop new sister cities and countries all over the all over the world. And that's a good thing. The cultural exchange is good. When we when we look at the economic potential, that's a great thing. The fact that we can, you know, create nonstop plays of some of these countries is is outstanding. But we mustn't forget that Denver has a very diverse population. And a lot of the folks who are our sister cities like Ethiopia, like the country, like like Mexico and. Like. Parts of Asia, you know, it's. Important. That we not only just recognize the cultural impact and relevance here in our district, in our city, but we also have to recognize the plight of the people who live in our city and that they struggle and they struggle here in this country as well, too. They face discrimination. They face a lot of cultural barriers and and oftentimes violence. And I think it's important incumbent upon us as as we recognize our our sisterhood with these cities that and we we develop these relationships, but we also make sure that we strengthen life, strengthen and improve community life for a lot of the folks who are here in our country and call our country home. Although we as a as a city and county recognize this important relationship, there's still a lot of folks out there that don't. And a lot of folks economically and socially are still treated like second class citizens. And we have to make sure that when we develop these relationships. That they are also that we're also we also have their back when it comes to that as well. Too far, too many times I've seen a lot of folks who are taken advantage of because they are new to this country. And despite seeing their flag here on the second and third floor in our city, there's still a lot of work to be done. And I think that's where this definitely helps. You know, I could think of a community in in Westwood where we have folks who live in come from different countries and didn't really talk. Didn't really get along. Were kind of siloed. But they are. One thing in common and that was gardening and. The West Wood projects. And one of the things that we realized in order to break down some of these barriers, strengthen community, was to create a community garden. Or they all work together side by side and they develop this relationship. So every. Month they have. A festival, harvest festival where everybody's sharing each other's food and it's amazing. And that's the kind of spirit I think this starts with the sister cities. There's a big responsibility with that socially as well, too. So I'm very happy to see this this proclamation move forward. And I'm glad. Councilman Brooks, that you've carried that flag. You've carried those flags forward. So thank you. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. See no other comments, Madam Secretary, roll call. Brooks Clark. Hi, Espinosa. Hi, Flynn. Hi Gilmore. I Cashman. I can eat Lopez. New Ortega. Assessment. Black eye. Mr. President. I. Madam Secretary, please cast a vote in as a result. 3913. 8691 is adopted. Councilman Brooks, is there someone you'd like to invite to the podium to receive the proclamation? You know, there is. And I but I just want to say, because I think Councilman Ortega brought it up and I see Rosemary Yogi in the audience we selected for young people for Manuel in 2012 to go on the trip with us to Kenya. And Rosemary is from Kenya. She lives in Denver now, but she has a restaurant in Nairobi that she she hosted our our young people. To this day, these kids still talk about that experience. And so just thank you thank you so much for your your love and support and for changing those kids lives. Now, for the leader of the older sister cities who's just doing so much on a shoestring budget, it's budget season. I want to bring up Beth Hendricks. Done a great job and. Good evening. Thank you for this honor and recognizing these historic relationships and anniversaries. With me is Steve Comstock, representing the 55 year old Takayama relationship. In these 55 years, we've held countless exchanges with both adults and students to learn from and celebrate both Japanese and American cultures, including a biannual student exchange, an annual artist exchange. And we've created and maintained business relationships that have catalyzed the nonstop flight to Tokyo and expanded trade. Steve. Don't know what I got, though, cause I'm a star. Thank you. Rosemary Yuki, representing our 40 year old sisterhood with Nairobi, Kenya. Currently, this historic relationship focuses on governmental exchange and assisting Nairobi's very young two year old municipal government in establishing best practices and effective processes. We also offer direct microloans to individual entrepreneurs in Nairobi and recently refurbished an elementary school in the Madaraka slum. Rosemary. Hum jambo. So the. Replies. To dumbo hum jumbo. A two jumbo ham. Jumbo tenor. You will reply to Jumbo. How much Jumbo? Until Jumbo. How many jumbo tenor to jump? Yes, my name is Rosemary Yogi. I'm actually the fundraising and membership. Denver sister city, Nairobi. And I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. And Sagi Hailu, founder of our 20 year relationship with Axum, Ethiopia. This sisterhood has offered Denver rights opportunities for Ethiopian voluntourism in partnership with Project Cure, as well as the successful, successful donation of a septic pumping truck and lots of local cultural programing for the 30,000 Ethiopian diaspora in the metro area. Sagi. But I'm not mistaken. I actually. Denver's sister cities is proud to manage and administer Denver's 12 sister and friendship cities worldwide. Our most visible celebration of these treasured relationships is our worldwide festival to be held this Sunday in the DC Galleria from 1030 to 5:00. This free, family friendly festival will feature the music, dance, food, languages, fashion and stories of our 12 sister cities. I hope you can each make it. Each of you also received a complimentary ticket to our kickoff reception on Saturday evening. This reception will showcase visiting delegations from our sister cities of Brest, France. Nairobi, Kenya. Kunming, China, Coronavac of Mexico and Karmiel, Israel. I hope to see you all there. I welcome and congratulate the newly elected members of city council and look forward to talking to you about sister cities. About half of you hold visible reminders of our sister city relationships in your districts, our sister city parks. I hope that those parks will create connections for you with a representative sister cities, because that's what sister cities is all about, connections across countries and cultures. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brooks, for that. All right. We are on to the resolutions. Madam Secretary, are you please read the resolutions. From finance and services 639 resolution approving a proposed purchase order between city and county Denver Powerhouse Equipment Engineering Company concerning a boiler at Denver International Airport 645 Resolution approving impose on Coal Technology Services Agreement between City and County of Denver Digital Intelligent Systems, LLC Doing Business Dice's First Staff Augmentation Services from Governance and Charter Review 644 A