A bill for an ordinance amending Sections 39-121 of the Revised Municipal Code of the City and County of Denver regarding the Schedule for Use of Facilities, specifically for the Denver Botanic Gardens. Amends Section 39-121 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code regarding Denver Botanic Garden fees. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 12-10-19.
12 hours, one day. Council Resolution 1340 has been adopted. Madam Secretary, will you please put the next item on our screens? Councilwoman Torres, do you want to go ahead with your questions on 13? 13? Thank you, Mr. President. I'll start with my briefest question for Parks and Recreation. And it's just. That might be you around the Parks and Rec Advisory Board process when this came through that board. And what their what their process and determination was. Issues around their community engagement specialist with Denver Parks and recreation. So this this particular ordinance went to the Denver Parks and rec advisory board in in September was they were briefed on it in November. They got to vote on it officially. October's meeting was canceled. At that time, there was no one that came and spoke on this bill and it was approved unanimously by the Premier. Okay. Thank you. And then I have. A question. For Denver Botanic Gardens. Good evening. I'm Jennifer Riley Chetwynd with Denver Botanic Gardens. Thank you for coming, Jennifer. Quickly, because. We didn't we didn't request in time for this to be pulled from consent in order to be presented at LUDI. If you can give. Some brief background on why the fee is being. Increased now. Yes. So for the last ten years, we have not had any increase in our daily admission rate. Over the last ten years, the gardens has grown quite significantly. You may be surprised to learn that right here in Denver we have the number one or number two most visited botanic gardens in North America. So we see more people here than similar properties in New York or Los Angeles or bigger cities across across the country. So we've grown quite significantly. We see more people, we see about 1.3 million people across our properties on site and then through outreach initiatives. So the cost of doing business has expanded. Just inflation, cost of serving more and more people. The programs that we provide our priority is maintaining and expanding access to audiences first and foremost across the 47 counties here. We want to remove hurdles to any access issues that might exist. So we have a lot of free admission, a lot of reduced admission, and we have a lot of programs that get into the communities for those who wouldn't otherwise be able to to come. So we are also the first organization that has raised our minimum wage to $15 an hour. So we did that in 2019. So there are several, you know, just elements that go into running a large nonprofit organization. And we feel like it is an appropriate but but not too significant raise to our admission rate that will help make continued growth possible. Okay. So the the. Increase is largely being tied to programing where I. Think a lot of my constituents were concerned it was being tied to paying back the fees on the or the. Yes. Yes. And lately that that element, which is a cost the cost associated with paying off a copy, a certificate of participation with the city that we've been in for the last ten years that was linked. To. This admission rate. But it's one of many, many issues that is one, you know, and then many of the others, the paying our employees a living wage, expanding programs, etc.. But yes, that is one element. The other the last question that I have is just to affirm some of the free entry that you have has been used, I know, by residents in District three pretty heavily. Can you describe quickly some of the official programs or groups that you work with? Sure. And I believe that you were sent a list of some of our programs that that are specifically geared toward removing barriers to access. One of those is the shuttle program. It's the a program that will provide free bus transportation to any community group in the seven counties, free admission and, if desired, free programing. So that has run the gamut. We've seen more than 45 organizations participate, with nearly 2000 people receiving that free admission in the last two and a half years since we've started it. And it's it provides tailored access to people in the language that they want to experience it in and in in a way that that suits their needs and interests. So I believe you received this handout, but everyone from the Denver Housing Authority, Mariposa, that's a strong collaborator of ours in your district, Girls Inc. And we say, what else? America's. I'm sorry. I happen to be hitting ones that are in your district, but it's across the seven counties. But that's been a great tool for us and something that we hold near and dear and want to continue and grow. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. I had a question maybe for the city attorney who worked on this. Jason, did you work on this? And the question as you're coming up to the microphone, this didn't get a hearing in committee. And so when I read through it, I was surprised to see that we're deleting in its entirety the section related to fees for using the facilities for renting facilities at the Chatfield site. When I talked to Jennifer from the Botanic Gardens earlier today, she said that was actually a request from the city attorney's office because we discovered after many, many years, I guess, of doing this, that we didn't really have the authority to do it. Or maybe you can explain why we're deleting this. I'm sorry. Jason Moore, City Attorney's Office. The city actually had entered into a lease with the United States Army to operate the to operate Chatfield. Right. That was a decision between parks and Botanic Garden to terminate the lease so Botanic Gardens could work directly with U.S. Army to operate. It wasn't it was not a recourse to the city attorney's office. Okay. And we are going to get an amendment to the operating agreement. Yes. The cooperative agreement is is we're working on that now. So there's just a few issues within the agreement that we're working through. It's taken some time. So we're eliminating these fees in advance of amending the operating agreement or the cooperative agreement, right? Correct. So that's the city since we're not going to be involved with operating or managing Chatfield and we wouldn't we wouldn't review and approve. Okay. Now this will come up on final in two weeks because we don't have a meeting next week. Could you send, get us a copy of the cooperative agreement and the current one under which we were operating Chatfield through the, through the association. And so that we can understand that better. For. You did before we have a final vote. Absolutely. I see. That's all I. Think. Councilman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. The only thing I'd want to say is that we had asked for public Mr. Rothman for public comment on the sixth. And so I'll just reserve my questions for then. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. All right. So no other questions on this item. Madam Secretary will be pleased with the next item on our screens. And Councilwoman, say to will you please put item 1330 on the floor. I move that council bill 19 dash 1330 be placed upon final consideration and do pass.