A bill for an ordinance approving a proposed Sixth Amendatory Agreement between the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado Judicial Department, to pay for personnel to provide a school based gang prevention program. Amends an agreement with the Colorado State Judicial Department by adding $75,807.82 for a new total of $999,637.73 and six months for a new end date of 6-30-20 to continue the work of the Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver (GRID) program, citywide (SAFTY-201100301; SAFTY-201952991). The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on 6-29-20. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 6-3-20.
Advise by his council. Bill 504 has passed. Councilmember candidate, will you please vote? Council Bill 508 on the floor. Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill 20 20508 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. Questions or comments by members of council is called up by two members. So, Councilmember Gilmore, you wanna go first on this one? Sure. Thank you, President. Clerk. We talked about this last week when it was on first reading, and I was very supportive of school board director Tate Anderson and Jennifer Bacon in ending the contract with the Denver Police Department for police officers to be within our schools and in learning more about this contract. There's no way I can support it. This will put two full time probation officers within Denver public schools, and there's no place for probation officers to be within our schools. If it was shared that, you know, we have a long history of kids who are having maybe issues at home, being bullied at school. We take away the very things that give them joy. Maybe, you know, hanging out at recess with their friends, being able to go to afterschool programs, even being in gym. And that was a question that I posed last week. Shouldn't these students be in school? They should be in their class. They shouldn't have that added stigma of when you're out of class, everybody else knows you're going to see your probation officer. That is not the sort of system that I want to support that I will support anymore. And so that's why I'm voting against this. Thank you, President. Council member. Councilmember CdeBaca. Thank you, Mr. President. Called it out again because I don't believe we need probation officers in schools. I don't believe that this is the way we should be doing gang reduction and intervention. And I think we need a new model. There's not enough pieces of data to prove to us that this program has worked over the years, and the fact that none of the data is public is the problem. And so I'm a no again. Thank you, Councilmember Councilmember. Sorry. Thank you. I have to echo exactly what both of my fellow councilmembers just said, but I do share a concern when the DPS contract for Saros was canceled. What they did was they they gave it a year rate. So it's canceled as of end of June 2021. And the reason that they did that was to have some lead time to prepare responsibly for what comes next. And I'm and not having had a conversation in committee on what comes next here, if it were not to pass, I'm wondering if it's possible, if my councilmembers would be willing to have an entertain a discussion about potentially re referring this to committee to have a discussion about whether it's worthwhile to move this forward or put a different end date on it or something like that, so that there's the potential to ensure that there's an ending that makes sense as opposed to just canceling it without something filled in. If not, that's okay. I don't support it, but I just wanted to put it out there as a potential option on the table. So thanks. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Torres. Thank you so much, Michael. Thanks for coming up. If you can answer a couple questions that I have about this contract, what funding source funds it? Great question. Council President Clark, Members of Council Michael Sapp, Department of Safety. This is a contract with the Colorado State Judicial and we contract with them to fund our two FTE positions in probation. So the state passes funding to us that we then employ two folks. That is correct. And do they operate in the capacity of probation officers? Yeah. And I actually I have colleagues here who administer the program. We we consider it. And more peace officers. And. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So. So. So. It's more than just this. This is actually. And this is the honest to God truth. Our ability to try to in that school to prison pipeline. Because this contract is embedded with a network of community providers like struggle of like the Dream Center, nonprofits that do the work every day, that can go into the home, assess a family, need to understand is a is a is a child are a chore because they don't have food or they don't have a good family structure. This this contract goes above and beyond to provide those services. And that's because it's a part of the grid network. And so that that's the more than just probation officers. And and if folks have if folks have questions or need more clarification on the scope of work, I have folks here from state judicial that can answer that question on their scope. So my my my problem with this is that the timeline has already it's coming up next week for the end of this contract. Yes. Councilman, I'm glad you brought that up. I actually think commit, commit, Councilman Sawyer, for that suggestion. This contract that you all are voting on, it's not a new contract. So this doesn't this isn't the alternative to sanral's. This is paying for. Scope of work from January one through June 30th. So this is just to pay off our invoice. And I get that we're we're being asked to fund something that's already been happening. And for a contract to come through that after the work has started puts us in a difficult position. I know one of the great staff members among the council districts, they're more often in line and and that both has me concerned for the state of those schools as well as the state of this contract. I'm. I'm troubled that we're being asked to approve a contract when it's already over. You are already need to pay the invoices. This is paying people's salaries, right? What happens if. There's a reason for that? And I appreciate Councilman CdeBaca calling this out, because we do need more context with the grant, with the great wealth, with these programs, especially in light of the SRO conversation. But because of the coronavirus, we were actually in conversations to take this contract to city council back in February. And the goal was because we reached that million dollar threshold, we were going to split the two contracts out. Right now we're at we're asking you all to fund the two FTE. We were going to split the great program in the gun case, probation officer, into two separate contracts. But we're going to do an RFP, we're going to do a sole source contract and the pandemic hit. And that's honest to God, truth. And so it delayed or delayed our efforts. And then with school calls end, we really are probation officers really had until like January. It's about mid-March until the stay at home orders hit. And so that that's. And in that sense, that's kind of why the contract is here today. And will you correct me if I'm wrong about the the role of the Greeks staff members? The one that I spoke to did not verify that they do probation work. They're doing curriculum directly with teachers in the classroom. So they're not pulling kids out to have a probation meeting with kids. It's curriculum within the school district's curriculum. Am I correct. That? Yeah. I'm actually going to bring my colleague up from the state to talk about the great program. Good evening. Araceli Raskin, probation supervisor. I supervised Miss Deborah Garcia Sandoval, who has been in in in the school district since 2011, 2012. When we started, we've been in 40 different schools, and total numbers of students that we've impacted is 9523 students. In response to Councilwoman Torres's question is we do not pool. And I think there was some miscommunication information last week. We don't pull the children out of the the school. And it's an extracurricular activity. This is actually part of their regular curriculum throughout the the day we get credit, we get the National Great Program. The model is has been given credit to be a certified program. So they get their social studies credit. And this is up to the point of teaching the curriculum. We've developed the relationships with the schools. Sometimes schools call us because maybe they have some bullying issues going on or some type of different for one reason or another . So that's why they they reach out to us, the probation officer in that capacity, Ms.. Garcia Sandoval, is not there as the role of the probation officer. She's there delivering this curriculum that she's been trained in. And if you look at the great model, that's the best concept is its most effective one. It's part of the school program we've tried doing like afterschool programing and it just doesn't work. And we also do part of this is also the great officer does a lot of stuff with the families and in the summer we've been in, I believe you guys received an email earlier today and I know you've heard a lot of information, but I just want to reiterate reiterate that we are in in different districts all over the city. We have Council Gilmore's school district nine schools. The store is nine schools. We were recently in. Mr. CASHMAN'S School District. Mr. FLYNN So another six schools. So out of these 40, 40 schools, we've seen a lot of positive results. And I would just encourage you guys and to support this program because it is beneficial to the community and to the students. Thank you. I'll just end with me. Ladies and gentlemen, please. This is the councilmembers turn to ask questions, please. Councilman Torres's homework. Just a commentary. Just knowing Miss Deborah, having met her and worked with her for a number of years. She's an incredible individual. Where I feel like we're put into a corner is approving a timeframe that's nearly done. And I'd like to make sure that we're looking at both the curriculum, some of the testing and feedback that you've gotten. And I know that you did testing that was done by Temple University. I'd like to see the results of that and what was asked and how timely it's been before we consider a renewal. Councilwoman tours are happy, too, to provide that information to you. Happy to provide that information to you. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else, Councilmember Torres? Thank you. Councilmember Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. So for, uh, for the people in the audience, we have talked about how this is a strong mayor city and we have limited authority. One of the things that is a limitation of city council is we either say yes or no to this contract. We can't amend it. So what Councilmember Sawyer is considering is is referring it back to committee so that we could then talk about it and potentially bring amendments. So just to say, you know, like that's that's part of our our frustration and to Councilmember CdeBaca is point about private prisons. We had that conversation. We said, can we amend it? Can we change the terms? And the answer was no. So we ultimately said no to private prisons in the city. So. You know, Councilman Hines, I normally I normally don't disagree. I'd like to reserve my disagreements in private, but I respectfully disagree. I think that what we're seeing here is a paradigm between executive and the legislative branch and the power that you all have. We're standing here for two FTE positions and you have the power to vote that contract down and you have the power to call the executive branch back in to a committee meeting. Well, we can work on language together. And so that's the beauty ness of our city that doesn't quite honestly get talked about. And I would hope that we're such a divided country right now. US versus them, you've got to pick a side. Yeah, I'm a black man. Well, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, we let everyone have their time at the microphone. Please. But I can take it, though. I'm a black man for my bill. I've been called an Uncle Tom because I work for the Department of Safety, and I'm good with it because it takes people in the system to fix the system. And that's all I'm trying to do. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, please. The microphone blowing out my self. Sounds good. So, Councilman Hines, that's all I'm saying. And I respect you, sir. We've been on. We demonstrated together. I just. I just want to this some point figure out how do we heal to Councilwoman Sandoval point? How do we deal? How do we come together? I'm looking to try to get us there. That's all I want to say. The ladies and gentlemen, please are you have more. I just one one more comment. I think I would echo Councilmember Torres his point about when we get contracts at the end of it passing us, that doesn't really sound like collaboration. That sounds like. We're going to need. It and we're going to like it. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. Councilmember CAVANAUGH. Councilman Hines, that's fair. And I and I own that. We can do better. We will do better. We got hit with a pandemic and that and then that. I own it and I own that. And I accept that we could have did better. I think. Councilmember Cashman. Thank you, Mr.. Mr. President. Michael. So we're being asked tonight to pay for the past six months of work, correct? Correct. Okay. So when would were we looking to get a contract? I'm assuming you would like this program to continue. So I'm wondering when that contract was going to come before us. Yeah. And that's why I like Councilman Sawyer's proposal of getting this contract through, paying for invoice, and then going back to the safety committee, which he chair and having a dialog around what a sole source contract looks like, what an RFP contract looks like. What does it look like to have probation officers in our schools? Because the reality is the reality is, is that there are young people, unfortunately, that do bring guns into our schools. And so I want to have that conversation. Sounds good. Please allow. This is my time to ask questions. Yes, please. Yeah. So that sounds good. So. So I'm looking forward to that conversation, right? Because we do want to come back to city council. I do want to have a conversation in committee with what the future of the great what the future of our gun case probation officer looks like moving forward. Well, if I can clarify with my my colleague, Councilman Sawyer. What I hear. Mr. Sharp saying is that you wanted to approve this and then go back to committee. Is that correct? Or do you want to just send this whole this contract back to committee rather than approve it? That's actually why I rang and again and I'm right behind you in the queue because I wanted to ask whether like how exactly we would do this because of the fact that this is I don't I don't want people who've done work to not get paid. We if we've if people have done work, they need to get paid for the work that they have done. It's not fair for us to withhold money from people who have done a hard day's work or hard six months work for political reasons. That's not okay. So if that's what we're talking about doing here, then that's not acceptable to me. So then I think that what we need to do is support this contract and then have a conversation about how we come to safety committee and, and, and have this conversation about how we make this change moving forward. If that's what if that's the option here based on the situation we've been put in, which I'm going to go on record as saying is not okay. Yeah, I get it and I get all the things. But it's it's also not okay that people have done a hard day's work and that we're not going to we're talking about not paying them for it. Yeah. So. So. So. Councilwoman Sawyer. Ladies and gentlemen, this is time for council to ask questions. And for the person out there, I please ask that you keep your comments. We. We listened to you. Please let us listen to them. You are. Mr. Sapp, did you have anything that I just. I just wanted to say. I just wanted to say for the record, too, Councilman Sawyer. Councilman Cashman. Councilman Torres, I apologize for putting this branch in this particular situation. I own it, too. Councilwoman Gilmer, we've got to do better and we must do better. And so we hear you. And I think we get these contracts, too, so we can pay our invoices. And we have the difficult conversation in committee about what the future of Grid looks like. In particular, these two probation contracts. Councilmember Cashman, do you have follow up to your answer from Councilmember Sawyer or from. Councilman Sawyer's position is clear to me. And I would just tell Mr. Sharpe that we need to get this thing to safety as soon as possible. And if this does pass tonight, which is as much heartburn as it presents. Being asked to either pay people who've already done work or not. I'm inclined to pay them. But excuse me if this is my time on the dais. Excuse me. This is my time. Ladies and gentlemen, please, please, please. Councilmember Cashman, the floor. Is trying to do the work you want us to do. Thank you. You had your turn. So. Michael. I will. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Please. Councilmember Cashman. Ready when you're ready. We will work with you and get it on the agenda right away. But my. I'm not going to be blackmailed again. Yeah, okay. So if. When now. We're gonna. Hades and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Not not not paying people who have done work for. Come in, please. Unfortunately. Unfortunately, unfortunately. Well, while I understand. Ladies and gentlemen. Well, I. Understand. Well, I understand the heartburn that this creates there. There's not an option to ask Mr. Sapp to pay out of his pocket for the work that was done. I. But. All right. I think I think I think it's I think it's fair to say I think it's fair to say that the frustration shouldn't be directed at Councilman Cashman, Hines said. All right. I can take it. Yup. Can't remember Kashmir. Anything further? Oh, no. We'll get we'll get this matter on the safety agenda. Thank you for that. If you will be in touch with staff tomorrow to get that set up. Councilmember Flynn, fingers are present. Michael what happens on July 1st with this program? It comes to a conclusion. I mean, at least the contract stuff's right. So what happens to the program? The program, the great program will carry on. The two FTE positions will no longer. They will pretty much cease. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. All right. Have a number of council members back in the queue. Councilmember CdeBaca. A couple of questions. So this. So last week you told us when we mentioned other nonprofit organizations that are doing this work, you mentioned that they are doing the work just under. You guys are paying them out of your professional services budget and not out of a contract. Is there not a way that you guys could pay out of your professional services budget rather than a contract that implies that we had some kind of approval over this? Yes. Yes, yes. Second question. Second question. Considering this was for the last five months and we've been in quarantine for months and schools have been canceled since March. What did we pay them to do exactly? Great question. So I'm asking. I'm answer your first part and then I'm as shot calling our chief probation officer to answer your second part. So, yes, so part of part of this program is paid out of out of our professional funds. That's circle of impact, empowerment, the drink center. And a lot a lot of times those organizations, for example, struggle to love. I know they've worked with Councilman Gilmore to provide full PPE gear to folks of Marbella Grande Valley Ranch. We're always looking for providers and to kind of help fill those voids. And so I do I do echoed the sentiment around how do we how do we increase that bench of nonprofit providers to help close those gaps, particularly in Globeville or Swansea or Marbella or the southwest quadrant of our city? Well, I've shared this concern here because, you know, I went to a school that was, you know, the only school that had metal detectors at the time. You know, we had excessive amounts of cops in there. I, I taught I ran programing for students at that same school. And when we had situations where kids were wrongly accused of having a gun. No amount of surveillance in their school, no amount of sorrows or probation officers working with them or curriculum that they received helped us get the data and information to exonerate them. It you know what it all did? It helped fast track their case and criminalized them with records that they carried for the rest of their life. And. And so. And so if we have a curriculum here, I don't know what it looks like. And I don't 100% believe that gang reduction is done through curriculum. If we have a curriculum, why don't we just pay for the curriculum and give it to our teachers for them to implement? Perhaps that's where Sean can explain to us what they were doing for the last six months. So when COVID hit. I'm sorry, could you just introduce yourself with. Our Sean Penn? With probation? When COVID hit and the schools closed, we pulled that. Position and we no longer were funding it through the city. So in the information. That Michael sent you on the budget, you could see there was like that. I think it was around $23,000. That was unused because I didn't feel I. Agree with you. It was not it didn't feel ethical by any means for us to be still receiving money when we could not do the curriculum. And so. Ladies and gentlemen, please, please, please. So the other. Piece about this program in this curriculum. Is that none. Of these kids are on probation. These are elementary school kids that were in there trying to do a curriculum. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot hear the answer to the council members question. I think I'm not asking about the curriculum at this point. At this point, if you canceled the posting and we've been in quarantine and schools been canceled and this contract was supposed to have been executed and completed by next week and we're signing it today. Can you explain to me what this $75,000 is paying for? It is paying for the other position. That is the intensive supervision for our youth that have picked up handgun cases. So those kids are they are probation kids. We are working with community agencies, partnering with them to help slow that progression into division of youth services and out-of-home placement. And we have seen a tremendous increase in our success rate with that population, which I can share that data since you had asked for some more back, but it's retroactive. You're saying that that one person did the work between now and quarantine, starting now, that one person we we have still been actively supervising those handgun case kids on probation all throughout quarantine. We have been conducting home visits. We have been doing Zoom Skype similar to what the rest of the world is doing. They were still all receiving therapy. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot hear the answer to the question. The council member has. Continued that position, continue to go because we couldn't just stop the services for those youth. It was the in-school position that did the curriculum, the great curriculum that we suspended those services due to COVID. So the $75,000 is not for two FTE, as I mentioned earlier, it is for two FTE up until was it March and then it's just the remainder is for the one. So. We entered into this under the guise that we had a contract. And so we started the services and we worked knowing that the contract was going through the process. And so that's kind of where we are today. And so just a quick question for Mr. Sapp. During COVID, we processed many contracts that were non-covid related, including multimillion dollar contracts for entertainment companies while all of their events were being canceled. And so can you explain to me why this didn't get on that laundry list of things to do that was being sent to us by the mayor during COVID? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question, Councilwoman. And I can I could say everything that comes to my head, and I just I want to be completely transparent. We missed the mark and. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Thank you. And so, yeah, I can give you a whole laundry list I can give you. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot hear the answer to the question. Please. I'm good. You're good to Councilwoman. Thank you, Councilmember Gilmore. Thank you, President Clark. So we're elementary schools. The only schools that these fees are located in. No middle middle school curriculum as well. So the main a majority is elementary school. But I can list all the names of the schools. Could you please? I think that. The audience misunderstands what the great program is. I feel like they're giving us a lot of misinformation. Please list out the school. Ladies and gentlemen, we can't hear the question. Please list out the schools in District 11 that these two individuals who are state of Colorado employees that I can assure you they have been paid. They are not waiting for city council to vote on this before those employees get paid. And I would just appreciate you listing out the schools in District 11. Please tell me the names of the council people. Stacy Gilmore, District 11. Oh, okay. So District 11, sorry, I have them by name. Gilmore eight schools. MLK Early College. Middle School. Strive Montebello. DCI Montebello. Oakland Elementary, Florida. Pitt. Waller Elementary, Florida. Pitt Waller Middle School. KIPP Northeast Middle School. And Then Vista Academy. And Vista Academy. Thank you. So I have never been contacted by a parent, by a student, by anyone associated with this program telling me they saved our family. They made a difference in our lives. And if this program is supposed to be the be all, end all, it's missing the mark. Because I can tell you, for the last nine months, we have dealt with serious. Serious. And Michael, you know this. We've been at the vigils together in Green Valley Ranch with what's been happening at Martin Luther King in GR so and were asked to retroactively vote on this. You could have brought this to us in October or November, December. And we could have and we could have through our committee process of asked these questions of gotten your data, the evaluation, how much of a difference this makes. And it's so disrespectful. Like, we're not even respected as a councilperson that you're going to trust us to ask these questions. It's brought to us when it's almost up and then we're expected. I mean, I don't even have enough information now because if you're telling me January, February, March, we had two lefties on an April, May and June because of COVID. We had one left. I've looked through all the documentation. I don't know what those lefties are paid. I don't have a pro-rated amount of anything. I mean, I. I will defer my time. President Clark, I'm still a no on this, and I'm not quite sure how we refrain. This back to committee is going to make a difference because it's retroactive. I would suggest that the Department of Safety eat this cost. I don't remember Councilmember Hines. Well. Did you have a question in there or did you? I'm good, thanks. Will you please list the schools in District ten? Chris Hines. You might as well read all of them. Oh, can. I read them all? And that way, Councilwoman Sandoval, I have Horace Mann, Middle School, Travis, the Sunnyside Stripe Middle School. Can you see that one more time? The palm tree vista. Horace Mann, Middle School. Trey Vista and Sunnyside Strive Middle School. We can send you all. Yeah. Councilwoman Torres. And this is one of our bigger districts that we've been in. CMS, Castro Elementary, Kepner Monroe, Cheltenham. Eagleton, who we have a very well established restorative justice program with the relationship with them as well. Farnham Elementary. Kellogg Elementary. Fairview Elementary. But see, Gilmore, I already read them. Or do you want me to repeat? Okay. Councilwoman CdeBaca White Middle School and Summer Academy. Garden Place Elementary. Whittier Middle School. Harrington International Academy. Columbine Elementary. Barrett Elementary. Gilpin Montessori Cole and Bruce Randolph. And we also do a lot of summer programing there as well. In that district, uh, Councilman Flynn Force Elementary. Johnson Elementary. Henry Middle School, Coons. Miller Creative Arts Academy, DST College View Middle School, DST College View Middle School. I think we had four different semesters. Council man had. HENDREN Herndon sorry. Smith Elementary Academy. Stegman Elementary. Um, Councilman Clark, Guardsman Elementary and College View Elementary Summer School. And like I said earlier, we had just gotten into a new school with Councilman Cashman's at Ellis Elementary. So no, there's no Hines in there at all. No Polaris. I think I think that's the one I think that that's the the beauty of of if we get these contracts through tonight and we we go back to safety committee this like we were able to add a school in Councilman Casamance district. If there are schools in District ten or District five that you all say, hey, you know, you might want to look at that school. They have this. They can, they can go into those schools. So. Mr.. Mr.. Sepp, I want to thank you you very much, sir. You are in the messenger. I mean, you know, like it's thank you for accepting accountability. You are the messenger. If if this were to be voted down the to FTE and then the one FTE, they've already gotten their paychecks, right? Yeah. I'm a bring city attorney. I'll bring an Adam Hernandez up this too. Like we're not going to go take money out of their. Account right now. Okay. I'm a big I'm going get you guys a legal illegal and to. Oh, absolutely. Actually, so I can speak to that. I'm sorry. Okay. So, yes, they have been paid through judicial in funds that are reserved, because generally when we'd get grants or contracts with the city, it takes a while for them to be approved and go through the process. So Judicial has some reserved funds in order to. Pay people so that when the contract comes through, we ritually ask for. That money to be reestablished back. Into judicial budget. So we were under the impression, based on the letters we got from the previous director and ongoing, that this was in the process. So yes, we in good faith continue to do that work in hopes that we could you know. We're all in a in a in a budget situation. And that's kind of where it is. If these positions are not funded, those two people will be laid off next Tuesday. So. Yeah. But the but the contract ends on the 30th, which is in a week or. Yes. So they're either laid off next Tuesday or in a week? Yes. So either way, you're right. Yeah. Okay, gentlemen, please. Yeah. Thank you. And originally, we were told the. Contract would go a year, and then it was. It was changed to the six months, which is. You know, where we're at now. So I apologize. I was thinking of the previous. No, it's fine. So, Mr. Sapp, I thank you for your indulgence and your willing to willingness to, you know, drop in your or fall on your sword. I know that we have had contract discussions with safety in the past, particularly like community corrections. So this isn't the first time. And and again, I'm not. You are just the messenger. This isn't the first time. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilmember Councilmember Sandoval. Thank you, Mr. President. So, Sapp. How come this wasn't brought to us? Like in December or January? COVID hit. March 16, Wright and DPS let out of school. I'll never forget it was Friday the 13th and it was my daughter's last day of her senior year ever. So why wasn't this brought to us in January? Why wasn't this brought to us in February? So I'm having a hard time. I understand COVID hit all of our lives, right? And we did our best to get this working. Why is this here now? Why wasn't this even done? When we first started meeting, we had Zoom meetings and we didn't have committee. I will admit that, but I just don't understand why we're here now. When COVID like you could have been here in December. I totally agree, Councilwoman. And I will say I will say this. So this just to give more context and be completely transparent, we had the manager of our grid office resigned on December 14th. At that point, we went into transition mode where we really began in January looking at how we could reimagine the great contract and the State Garden probation contract. And so we spent time in the laboratory in January and February trying to figure out what, like I said earlier, what a potential RFP or sole source contract could look like. And then all of that requires conversations with the state. And so I'm not I'm not here to lay anyone under the bus. But sometimes those conversations, it takes a little long for emails that go back and forth. It was our it was our intent to be in safety committee in mid-March on these two only two FTE positions. Not I guess I get how bureaucracy works, right? Yeah. I'm not new to too bureaucracy. I'm not new to red tape and I'm not new to how slow things move and then how quick we have to act. Right. That's why I feel like we're being asked as this was moving along while all these conversations are happening. But yet at the same time, when I'm doing outreach, it's really important that we do what I call in my office back work. So if my staff were having these conversations with people, I would say, you need to reach out while these conversations are simultaneously happening so that we're better prepared. And that's just something that we've all learned that through the process. And this is something that we just like when we first got up here in August. All of a sudden we were supposed to like boat on the industrial prison complex without any information. And so there has to be a better way where you can set us up for success with giving us information. Because the two schools that you just listed. I just have to say, man, Travis, that it's not horsemen anymore. It used to be it used to be a junior high school, but now is turned into a elementary school that has that has toilets that are for junior high schools, not elementary school kids. It's right next to the Craig Newham projects. My lowest income neighborhood and then to Vista, Sunnyside is like one of the most failing neighborhood schools in these two areas. So these. The fact that it's in these two schools. Mm hmm. Means that we're targeting our most vulnerable. Low income. People in my district. And so had you not read out that to me, that should have been something that he. Sandoval wanted you to know. We're bringing in this contract. Here's where these people are. Here's who the families were helping. So then I could have been better prepared, appear to have more resources. But learning about this right now at the last hour and that it's in true Vista and Sunnyside Prep. Gives me great pause. And so with that, I can't support something like that. And it's so. Councilmember, did you have a question in there that I would like to respond. Or I just that my question was, I don't understand why they weren't here in December. And I just want to make sure that you're okay. He's responding. Yeah. I. I just. These contracts go back. Our relationship with state. Your district goes back to 2011. Yeah, for sure. And they predate a lot of the councilmembers here. And it's not lost on me that, um, the previous body, there were actual resolutions congratulating the great these programs for the work that they're doing in the schools. I get the equitable representation and I think that if we, if we get the opportunity to go back to the safety committee, this like what we're doing with the curfew amendment, um, looking at ways to not just target far north these, not just target southwest Denver, but look at it really from an equitable lens, just a geographical equitable lens. I think that we can shift where we are in some of our schools so that we're not targeting our schools. And that's why I do applaud Councilman CdeBaca for calling it out, because we're having these conversations now. I prefer to have them on in committee, but nevertheless, we're here now, and so we get an opportunity to do it right this time and that and that's us. And I totally respect you. I would be there if I had the information. You know me well. I know we we have a long history together and you know me well that if there is something to give accolades to, I will give it. But in this situation, we are not given the information to be able to give the accolades that are needed. So now we're up here questioning. So yes, I worked I was the chief of staff for Councilman Espinosa. I wrote his talking points. I know what he said. I worked in Judi Montero's office. I know what she said. I helped her get there. But it was always we had a little bit more information to help them get there. And when we didn't, we we had to have it out in committee, which we haven't had the luxury of doing because of COVID. But it's a new things have to shift. Like I keep talking about our zoning, right? Our zoning, our landscape has changed. And so we can't go back in time. All we can do is do better. And so now we have to just we have to have a lesson learned. Thank you. Thank you. Can't remember Councilmember Torres. What I'm. Struggling with is. The impression that we're being given of great versus grid versus the gun offender program. Great is valued in my district by my principals and my teachers. They actually appreciate it. And it's not probation work. It's not a cop coming in in uniform. It is working on conflict resolution tactics. On bullying. On upstander versus bystander. I know this. And what I want to see is more of that and less of its association with criminal justice system. So that's what that's what I'm hoping for, the separation of these contracts and more clarification of the rules and. I'm getting the reach out from folks, mostly the educators, who are saying this is something that we appreciate in our school and it's an elementary school. But I need to hear more of that. If you're if you're as heavily involved in my district, the same. The same question that I asked in October of the SRO presentation is how you're working your way out of my district. And that's what I also want to know. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. All right, Madam Secretary, roll call on 508. CDEBACA No. FLYNN All right. GILMORE No. Herndon, I think to. Hynes. No Cashman, no can each pass. Sandoval. No. Sawyer. No. Torres. No. Black. I can eat. No. Council president. By secretary. Please close voting out the results. Okay. Secretary. Are we missing somebody? Yes. Councilmember Cashman. I'm sorry. Cashman we didn't get your button. Didn't come up on my screen. Screen is stuck. I'm a no, but it didn't come up. It's a no. That was a four I's. Eight names comfortable. 508 has failed. All right. That concludes the items to be called out this evening. Our bills for introduction are ordered published, except for Bill 536, which will be voted on after its hearing. Council members remember that this is a consent or block vote and you will need to vote. Otherwise, this is your last chance to call an amount for a separate vote. Customer Can you you pleased with the resolutions for adoption and the bills on final consideration for final passage on the floor? I move that. The resolutions be adopted and bills on final consideration be placed upon final consideration. Do pass in a block for the following items of all series of 2024. 9525. 526 527 528 529. 523 502 512. 532 548 499 515 516 507. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. Madam Secretary, Roll Call Black CdeBaca. I. Flynn, I Gilmer. I. Herndon, i. I. Cashman. I can h ry Sandoval. Hi, Sawyer. I Torres. I Council President. Bye, Madam Secretary, please close voting in the results. 12 hours, 12 eyes. The resolutions have been adopted and the bills have been placed upon final consideration and do pass. Tonight there will be a 30 minute courtesy hearing on Council Bill 536, submitting to a vote of the registered electors of the city and county of Denver, a proposed