A bill for an ordinance submitting to a vote of the qualified and registered electors of the City and County of Denver at a special municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 7, 2017, the question of whether the City shall be authorized to issue or incur general obligation debt for the purpose of financing and/or refinancing the cost of repairs and improvements to the Denver transportation and mobility system; providing the form of the ballot question; providing for other details in connection therewith; and ratifying action previously taken. Refers a question to the November 2017 ballot to allow the City to issue general obligation bonds for the purpose of financing and/or refinancing the cost of repairs and improvements to the Denver transportation and mobility system. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 7-24-17.
12 eyes. Council Bill 729 has been adopted. Congratulations. And just like that, we are on to our last bill of the evening bills, I should say, of the evening. Councilwoman Gilmore, will you please put Council Bill 812 on the floor? Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill 812 be ordered published. It's been moved and seconded because for Lopez, it's council's understanding that after the courtesy public hearing, you and Councilman Espinosa will be offering an amendment to Council Bill 819, which designates the project's level of funding to be undertaken. So the speakers may address the amendment during the public comment section if they choose. Actually, I'm going to ask you to hold and let let take this. Go ahead and deliver the entire. Go ahead, councilman of it. That's fine, Mr. President. And only because I know we have this in the chambers right now. If you want to also announce that we have a translation, simultaneous translation taking place for folks that are coming. Great on the amendment. Yeah. Just as Councilman Lopez has mentioned, we have a translation taking place for the entire council, for those who need it. If you need translate. Translation monitors are there in the in the back over here. All right, take us away. Take it away. Good evening, Council President Brooks and members of the council. And take us all the way the deputy chief projects officer in the mayor's office. I'm joined here by Laura Perry in the Department of Finance. And what we'd like to do for a few minutes is just give a key highlights of the process that have led us to this evening, where you're going to be considering the various bills for the 2017 G.O. bond. And take us let me let me just just state it for the record because they're only set for Council Bill 812 to be order published. But this is 812 through 819 and we're having the staff report by Typekit Holloway. Go ahead. Thank you. So as you all recall, we began this process back in 2016 where we started to develop the list of projects that were going to be considered as part of the 2017 Geo Bond. We began by using Elevate 2020, which is the city's six year capital improvement plan. And then we added on input that we received from the city's cultural institutions and Denver health, plus input from City Council and the public. From there, we went to the next phase, which was the evaluation and recommendation of list of projects that again, you'll see this evening before you. The foundational document that we used elevate 2020. Again, that capital improvement plan for the city actually has a culmination of projects that have received input over a series of years from neighborhood plans, community meetings, city council members, as well as city agencies that have taken technical analyzes and created projects out of those for our city assets. Then, starting in 2016, over a year ago, we began six citywide public meetings co-hosted with City Council. Through that process, we received over 3000 ideas about potential projects which were part of the evaluation and ultimately either screened out or included in the final recommendation. Over half of those comments were received were about transportation and mobility, which also was one of the initiatives that the mayor wanted to see a focal point on was transportation mobility. And then in 2017, as we entered into the evaluation and recommendation process, we've continue to take input from the public and have received, again, over 1000 comments to date associated with this list. So we in the evaluation and recommendation phase, we had over 60 volunteers, stakeholder committees within five discrete areas, transportation and mobility, parks and recreation, safety facilities, city owned facilities and arts and culture. And those five subcommittees made a recommendation to an executive committee who then in turn did additional analysis and evaluation and made a recommendation to the mayor. The mayor then worked with council leadership to incorporate City Council's thoughts on the 2017 G.O. bond, which ultimately culminated in the list of projects and the bill ordinances that you'll see this evening. They started with over $3.6 billion worth of projects, had a very difficult task. We are very appreciative of their work as well as the input received by the public in council members. By the numbers, the total project value in the bills that you're seeing this evening is approximately 887 million. We have an additional 50 million which gets you to the 937. That is part of the purpose contingency. Again, best practices. This has generated over 460 distinct projects. About half or over half is about fixing repairing what we have. We've heard that loud and clear from the community through this process, and just about half of the funds are going towards transportation and mobility, which again was one of the mayor's vision and goal for this bond. We are also leveraging approximately 400 million and other people's money when we go forward with this bond. Good evening, Laura Perry with the Department of Finance. If the ban is approved by voters, the debt authorized under the bond would be issued in multiple issuances about over a ten year period. Our bonds are secured by debt service mills to the tune of 8.43 mills, and the anticipated total repayment costs for the 937 million in principal is approximately 1.7 billion, and that's principal plus interest for a term of approximately 20 years. And of course, the city's two year bonds are currently triple-A by all three of our major credit rating agencies. Once the funds are issued, they will be managed by an oversight structure, which essentially will take a look at each project, its execution funds and the governance around those funds. The structure will consist with our of our department staff and leaders as a starting place. And further details on that structure will be provided once we pursue a program management structure for the bond. At a minimum, annual reporting will be put forward for how bond proceeds are expended and the status of our projects. But we fully expect to honor quarterly reporting, which we have done to date via the Better Denver Bond program. And of course, city council will see all contracts over $500,000, including our debt issuances. The eight bills before you today are listed here on this slide. I'm not going to read each one, but our total proposed 2017 two year bond package is a little over 937 million. With the allocation among these seven listed in the table below and then the final ordinance is the companion ordinance which designates how each of the dollars will be spent within each of the ballot. Questions slash purposes listed on this slide. Following tonight's second reading is next week on the evening of August 14th, which would be the referral to the ballot. Then between August and November would be the ballot campaign, with the vote concluding on November 7th and if approved by voters. Department of Finance would seek to go to the market primarily the first quarter of the year and of course would bring forward that first issuance to City Council for approval. And that concludes the staff report. All right. I did not introduce Laura Perry, but she's been doing a great job for the last year working on this. All right. I'm going to pass it over. For the amendment for Councilman Lopez and or Espinosa, who wants to go ahead. I'll take. Thank you, Mr. President. So I'll make the motion first and then. Then explain it, if that's okay. Now, you don't need to make them. Just explain it right now. Oh, you just want. Okay. Yeah. All right. Just. Just for the 30 people who are about to speak so they know what you're talking about. Gotcha. So let me just speak to the purpose of the amendment just as written. That way, you know, that we'll go into discussion later. But the the amendment that Councilman Espinosa and I have is to reallocate a portion of the bond proceeds associated with the debt issuance for transportation and mobility projects by eliminating the Federal Boulevard Infrastructure Project, thus freeing up 9.8 million to be reallocated as follows an additional 4.2 million for Morrison road improvements, bringing the total amount of bond proceeds to be dedicated to this project to 12,242,500. The addition of the following three projects were originally listed on potential projects list, but not included in the mayor's recommendation. That's the Central Street Promenade, with the estimated cost of 850,000 Federal Boulevard pedestrian improvements, with an estimated cost of 2.8 million and West Colfax Transit enhancements with an estimated cost of 1.9 million. Okay. Anything else you want to say about that? Guzman-Lopez Well. Yeah, so let me just say this. Let me just, just start out by saying we were very happy seeing, you know, the process and you know, our amendment is not a critique of the process or anything like that. We, we noticed that the this throughout the process, there have been some key projects that folks who you you'll hear from later had been working on for such a very long time. We know in the West Side there's just a lack of connectivity to the west of the to the rest of the city. And, you know, it's still a long time of not being able to really fully have that connection in a lot of ways. 13th Avenue, some of the upgrades, the realignment, things like that are doing it down in the valley. But when you look at some of that connectivity and mobility, there really is that barrier. And I think it's important that we address that. And also because along this stretch and it's not just Federal Boulevard, but the neighborhoods that surround Federal Boulevard also suffer from the same thing, is that there's just a lack of strong pedestrian transit oriented infrastructure. Right. And key nodes. And so although federal is important, you know, federal has seen its its fair share of work along the way. And what you're going to see, I mean, apologies ahead of time, but you're going to see a traffic nightmare because of the fact that we are also going to rebuild Federal Boulevard from Holden to Sixth Avenue, and that that kind of tops it off from the previous project was the previous closure that we had was rebuilding those bridges along Sixth Avenue and then from about Fifth Avenue down to Alameda, rebuilding Federal Boulevard. So in a lot of ways, we have dedicated a lot of resources. And look, we identified we asked that I asked this question not too long ago during this process and wondering what this 9.8 million was during this process. We knew we were following certain projects that were key, like Morrison Road, like West Colfax, and they were key because they are they are neighborhood centers, they are city centers. They move people and they are what we wanted to see was complete projects. Well. They came through the processing complete from one from the committee to the executive committee, back and forth. We'd see it kind of like a like a tetherball. And there were times where I was just dying to scream and say, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's for this. And, you know, we're just respecting the process. We didn't do that. But in looking at filling those gaps, Morrison rode on West Colfax on on the the project that was supposed to happen a long time ago with the Central City Promenade and then also some portions of Federal Boulevard that were just high priority. We just wanted to make sure that if we had an opportunity, why don't we complete the projects that were already there? Let's complete it and let's walk away from right there, complete. We can walk away as opposed to what we found in this $9.8 million that was allocated for Federal Boulevard. It was really kind of like it was really, um, wasn't so ambiguous. It was pretty obscure. It was very general. And we understand, yes, there has been great work done on this federal corridor study. If we really wanted to try to make Federal Boulevard and transform Federal Boulevard into a transit corridor, ladies and gentlemen, it's going to take a lot more than $9.8 million. And in no way is it West Colfax or is it Colfax, but it is very important and it is that big of a deal. Right. And so when you look at this opportunity in this bond right now, you have you have these projects that were not completely funded. And then a project that basically is is a pilot, right? It's much more of our it's much more worth our time and our investment to complete these projects, be done with them and move on to the next vision and actually look at reinvesting a lot of future resources into federal government as we do it. And so it you know, I. If these funds are approved, does it get us any closer to the BRT? Does it does it or any other high capacity transit for that entire quarter? Does it stop momentum of the BRT? I don't think so. But what this does on on the West Colfax side is because that BRT stops that just right at the federal Decatur station. Does it go any further despite Colfax being going all the way to Sheridan? This makes that connection. This allows us to connect to that BRT, make that East-West connection on and on. Further on Morrison Road, it actually allows us to make that East-West connection on a diagonal. The folks that are coming into the city, Van Morrison Road and what people really don't understand is that is a heavily used avenue for it. And so as that happens and as folks as you see here are working in along Morrison Road to transform that into their main street to their main corridor, the biggest obstacle to that is the lack of pedestrian infrastructure, the lack of stoplights, the lack of the lack of bulb outs and medians and pedestrian refuges. So that's what that does. And it complete something that has long been awaited. Councilman, I look at you because I know you were part of that council a long time ago that really set that vision. So I also want to allow my colleague to chime in on that as well, too. I don't want to dominate that, but that's really the heart of what we're trying to you know. You guys are going to get another shot when we actually amend the bill to comment on it. I want to get these 30 folks out here. Thank you. Mr.. That gives them a good idea of what's going on. All right. We have, first of all, the the public hearing for council bills, 812 to 819 is now open. We have 30 speakers. Remember that this is an hour courtesy public hearing. So I'll keep a timer with the president, pro tem Joe and Clark looking over my shoulder to ensure that it's at an hour and we don't cut you short at all. You have 3 minutes and I'm going to call the first five people, have them call you in five sets of five and just come up here to the front here and thank you. Take us and Laura for giving that up. All right. For the first five, we have Rick Locke and tour George Sparks, Robin witnessing Steve Garrett and Sekou. Steve Gerrard. I'm sorry. Mr. Looking. You have 3 minutes. Go ahead. All right. Well, thank you. Thanks. Council President Brooks. My name's Frank Logan. Tory. I live at 2145 East 16th Avenue, said City Park, West Council District nine, and just one block off of Colfax. I'm also the executive director for the Colfax AV Business Improvement District, and that runs from approximately the state capital on the West End to East High on the East End. My favorite quote about Colfax is it's the most Democratic street in Denver. It's accessible to all types of people. My second favorite quote is a little bit disparaging, comes from George Orwell in the late seventies who said the threat of nuclear annihilation loses a bit of its sting once one has visited Colfax Avenue. We've come quite a long way since then. And and I look forward to telling Mr. Will after the voters pass the bond in November, how far we've come. And it's been because of all the work that you and City Council and others have done, the community supporting lots of comments about Colfax improvements during the the community engagement price. The process that takes was talking about city staff has identified Colfax as an important corridor to invest in and then the Go Bond Transportation Committee and the mayor have both recommended that $20 million go to Colfax for eight miles of improvements, serving about 75,000 people in the city. The four Colfax bids have also been unified and organized. In order to be able to take this to it to another level, make the streets safer and and have a sustainable plan for the long term. And last but certainly not least, is the $55 million for the bus rapid transit that has also been recommended, which will serve approximately 50,000 people at its peak. It's 50,000 daily riders. So in a decade or two from now, when these people are going to be getting off of the bus on to Colfax, they'll be stepping on to a safe and friendly and vibrant Colfax. And it's going to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability or income, whether they're a resident employee or a tourist. They'll have more freedom of choice of how to get there and things to do once they get there. And and I want to thank you all the mayor, the Bond Committee folks that volunteered. Countless hours to. Doing it. And and thank you for supporting the $20 million going to Colfax improvements and the 55 million for the BRT. Mr. LARKIN See, that's it. You've run out of time. You can see it all this Saturday at Artifacts at Park Avenue in Colfax. Thank you, sir. George Sparks, you're up. Good evening. I'm George Sparks. I live at 1401 South Saint Paul Street. And Councilman Cashman represents our family there, president and CEO of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. And I'm here to express our collective support for the general obligation bond. Thank you, President Brooks and City Council for the opportunity to share with you the value general obligation bond funding brings to the community through our institutions with respect to all those who wish to speak during a limited time. I offer a combined statement on behalf of the museum. Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Denver Zoo and Denver Art Museum. We represent city assets that have a global impact. All of our proposed projects repair and replace critical elements of our ability to serve a diverse population for decades to come. Residents and visitors to Denver enjoy an incredibly rich and vibrant arts and culture scene. Collectively, in 2016 alone, we served a staggering 6.6 million guests. And while our guests have happily been engaged and entertained over the years, our facilities are regularly impacted by this steady use. And we all take very seriously our commitment to partnering with the city to maintain the vitality of our facilities for future generations. Our $116.9 million request will help cover the costs of critical deferred maintenance and Enhanced Education Center replacement of a 50 year old animal hospital. Life safety upgrades to theaters and to preserve an architectural icon. We recognize that we are asking the citizens to invest in us and we commit to making the most of that investment and continuing to engage increasingly more and different audiences. I would like to thank the Arts and Culture Subcommittee and Mayor Hancock for the time and energy they committed to reviewing our requests. Tonight, I ask that you approve our funding request as forwarded to you by Mayor Hancock to complete these crucial projects. Thank you again. And we ask for your support of the general obligation bond. Thank you, Mr. Sparks. All right, Robin wouldn't seem. Hello. My name is Robyn Winston and I live here in Denver, I'm pleased to say. And I am the CEO Denver Health. I'm here first to say thank you to the council. To the. The volunteers on the committees and to the staff who worked on this bond project. It was an amazing effort. And as I watched it coming new to the city of Denver, I have to say that I think that there's a great deal that everybody who is involved in this. Process should be proud of. Denver Health Plans on using the $75 million request that is included in the geo bond as a partial payment on a new outpatient medical building that will be constructed on our campus. We started a process in 2013 of doing a master facilities plan, looking at all of the. Different primary. Care centers that we have scattered across the city of Denver. We serve the population that is most vulnerable and most needy in all of the areas of the city. With those primary care clinics providing PCP, SE primary care physicians, behavioral health, substance abuse and other types of services in those clinics. But one thing that we need to do is expand the specialty care. So when we have patients who come to our clinics and in 2014, we served 419,000 people, in 2016, where we served approximately 500,000 people. And that number continues to grow when patients need to be referred to a cardiologist or general surgeon or another specialist. We are quickly reaching capacity in all of our specialty care clinics, and these are patients who are coming to Denver health from across every every part of the city of Denver. By adding this new building, we're going to increase our capacity and allow or allow our physicians to take care of the patient patients in the city of Denver who most need their care. The building will cost 150, $154 million. $75 million will be funded through the geo bonds. The balance will be funded through Denver Health's capital plan, philanthropy and cash reserves. That we have available to. Us. When we open the building, we will include not only specialty care services that the patients need everything from cardiology, general surgery, new clinics for behavioral health. But it will also then allow Denver Health to take the next steps in the future on our master plan, which include adding new substance abuse and behavioral health beds and other specialty services to the campus. So we think that this is something that the citizens of Denver, and particularly those citizens who are most vulnerable, are in desperate need of. So we ask you for your support on this. And again, thank you for all of the hard work and effort, because it was really quite amazing to watch from the outside. Thank you. Thank you, Ms.. Weinstein. All right, Steve, draw. I get that last night. You got it right the first time. Okay. What? Garrett? My name is Steve Garrett, and I'm a retired division chief with the Denver Fire Department for 37 years. And I'm here on behalf to thank you for putting on the bond issue several fire issues. And thank you for your support to the fire department on all the other items. As a Division Chief, I was responsible for the building of new firehouses and for the maintaining of the existing ones, as well as all the other logistics. And two of the issues tonight are the building of a new firehouse at 72nd and Panya, I believe that's Council District 11. And one of the reasons is we've identified that station as having a response time average of 5 minutes and 40 seconds. What we strive for is an NFPA standard, national fire protection, a four minute response time. We also have a committee, MRSA, in which we worked with council members at the time. I was on it for five years. That was Peggy Lehman. And in order to meet that four minute response time, you have to build firehouses to do that. And those hotels have been out there since 1995. And we tried to get it. We had studies done both in 2003 and 2014. And the 2003 study identified it. And they said at that time it would be a mid project to be put on the books at 2008 to 2014. Well excuse me, 2012. Well we all know what happened during that time with the big financial crisis and we weren't able to go through with the project. But now we hope that we can continue to go through the project. And the other item on the list that I have a minute is some station repairs that deal with gender specific bathrooms, kitchens, replacing flooring, relocating a chief to the south district. Because of our take over of Sheridan and Inglewood, we have to accommodate them at one of our stations out Southwest and the other. Items. As you know, when you get in construction, especially a building is over 40 years old and our oldest is 86 years old. You're constantly dealing with environmental issues like as best as radon and a bunch of other items. So we're asking you for your support, and we thank you for your past support on these issues. Thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. Last in the group of five is Sekou. Yes. My name is Chairman Sekou. After the third time up here, we pretty much know what I'm doing, who I represent, a particular focus. It's on in this bond issue. The libraries. Money for the libraries. We look at all of the numbers. That's a lot of money. Libraries is at the bottom of the bill. And we know for a civilization to advance. They have to have knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Before you talk about a bus. Or before you talk about health care. No knowledge, no wisdom, no understanding. And then all of that falls apart. And yet it has the lowest numbers in it. And we know that a government commitment to its citizens and civilization is based on how you spend your money. So the question becomes, oh, secret, how are you going to encourage? Black people to vote for this. How are you going to do it? Because when I look at the numbers and I've been down here coming in, watching how the money split up. 90% of the money is going to white male privilege. And then the rest this left 10%, which is the crumbs that everybody else got to fight for, ends up being an exercise in futility. So we need to stop lying about our priorities. Stop lying about diversity. Your answers it because I. What would you do with your money? So stop lying about equal opportunity for women. I watch how you spend your money. Everybody just needs to be authentic about it and say, Hey, man, this is all about white supremacy and white privilege for males. And we're going to take it back to where it used to be. Well, that's not going to happen because black folks ain't goin nowhere. We're going to stick and stay. We're going to fight for our right to be recognized and treated like human beings. And that library on Welton Street is crucial to our legacy. Crucial to our legacy. I was up in the mountains, Arapahoe County, part of the national park, and it dawned on me that was named after Indian people. But guess what? I saw no Arapaho Indians nowhere up there. No one. And that's how the West is. One. That's how this one. So we've got to stop this. And we've got to stop it now. And you have an opportunity to do that. Because when this thing is voted upon and the money comes in, we've got to change the paradigm in terms of participation in how we do the money . Thank you very much. Time's up. Thank you. All right, I'm gonna call the next five up here, and, um, I think I. I think we got that first name spell wrong, but if you. Your first initials. In your last initials, Rodriguez, you're up. Jill Larkin. Tori. Denny O'Malley. Kristen. Monroe. And last one and this five is Bart Berger. This misread? Yes. I'm sorry. We spoke. Your name? First name? No, it's all right. Say your. First name. My name is Atsu Rodriguez. I am 14 years of age. I've been living in Westwood for four years. Well, I first want to think. I mean, the sorry city council for considering us for this grant to build a recreation center. I would love to have this recreation center be built for the community, of course, and for my family. I used to go to a recreation center, but the recreation center was far away from my home. So I had to stop going to that center. And the reason why was my mom works and there was no transportation. And as I mentioned before, it was. Way too far away. So I want to thank you guys and hope you consider giving us the grant. Thank you. Miss Rodriguez, please come back for, you know, next time to another council. I mean, you're 14 years old and you're here. Thank you so much for being here. You got to come back. All right, Jill, I can talk. Hello. My name is Jill Lowcountry and I'm here today on behalf of Walk Denver and as part of the Denver Streets Partnership to express support for the mayor's proposed project list for the Go Bond. Although none of us got everything on our wish list for the bond, the mayor's proposal does include a strong package of multimodal transportation projects that will provide Denver residents with increased options for getting around our city. In particular, I want to highlight the $30.7 million investment in citywide sidewalks as a particularly important commitment that will not only make our city more walkable, but also more equitable. The city's current. Practice of leaving it entirely up to private property owners to build and repair sidewalks has directly led to the current inequities in our city today and created a system. Of haves and have. Nots where only the wealthy neighborhoods have complete, well-maintained sidewalks. Tragically, the Denver residents who are most dependent on walking to get to transit, to get to jobs, to schools and other daily destinations, often live in neighborhoods with the worst sidewalks and the highest rates of people dying and suffering injuries in traffic crashes while walking. This is not acceptable. The presence or absence of sidewalks should not be the indicator of whether a neighborhood is affordable or not. To address this inequity, the city must proactively. And systematically invest in building out a complete sidewalk network so that every Denver neighborhood has this most basic infrastructure that people need to get around safely. The 30.7. Million for city wide sidewalks in the bond is. An important down payment on this promise. We at Walk Denver and of the Denver Streets Partnership look forward to working with the mayor and the City Council to identify additional sustained funding needed to build out and maintain the complete network. Thank you very much. Thank you. Looking toward Denny O'Malley. Mr. President. Respectful of your time with. But once you come to them. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mr. O'Malley. Kristen Monroe. All right. Barbara. Good evening. Councilman Brooks. Counsel, it's going to surprise you. I'm going to talk about the Denver mountain parks. I want to wish a happy birthday to Councilman Susman, who curiously, I, too, just celebrated my 43rd birthday. I am here to speak personally and on behalf of the Denver Mountain Parks Foundation. I'm a currently doing business out of a post office box in Capitol Hill, and I want to support the inclusion of the Denver Mountain Parks and in the GO funding for the CTC infrastructure improvements in the historic C, C C camp in Morrison and the Katherine and Craig Mountain Park camps. Those are important to our legacy in our history, in the development of Denver and our relationship with the federal government. And it's a pretty interesting thing because that TCC camp was of course where the boys were who built the Red Rocks Ampitheater and we used other people's money to do it. This $2 million that's dedicated for this is is a lot of money. But when you consider the Denver mountain parks are 72% of Denver's park acreage, that's not a heck of a lot of money, but it is a significant amount of money when you consider that it's the first public, dedicated public funding since 1955 for the mountain parks other than the general fund budget on an annual basis. The renovation of this facility will enable the occupancy by an outfit called Historic Core, which is a national nonprofit organization that restores historic structures on public lands. And that's as a result of our working with them and with the Director of Parks and Rec, Happy Haines, her work, and Scott Gilmore's excellent vision to understand the rest of what that could actually mean for the mountain parks. The this is a big deal to to have this camp restored for that purpose. This is a really big deal for two reasons. Not only does it enable the restoration of this camp, but with a historic for complete restoration of the other significant historic structures in the Denver mountain parks can be enabled through their work. And number two, the skills training that the historic corps people do for youth through their volunteer programs opens up the larger CTC in Katherine Craig facilities for expanded environmental and conservation education programs. That can be done in partnership with the zoo. The Denver the Denver. Mr. Bird Museum of Nature and Science, suburban Denver Botanic Gardens. You've run out of time. I had more. Okay. Thank you. All right, we're in call next five up here. Jamie Perkins, Kristoff. Henry. Jenny. La Prairie. La Prairie. Gabriela medina. Why don't you guys start coming up to the front here to have a seat? Gabriela medina. And one more. Heather Noyes. Another noise in. Oh, why, yes. Yeah, come on to the front. All right. First up, Jimmy Perkins. Hi. I'm Jimmy Perkins, resident of Denver. My home addresses. 1910 Xenia Street. So thank you and good evening. Council members and staff. My name again is. Jimmy Perkins, and I'm the program manager at Transit Alliance, which has a 20. Year history here in the metro region of supporting and advancing public transportation on behalf of Transit Alliance. I'm here to provide our comments of support for Federal Boulevard transit improvements in the go round. First, though, I'd like to express our support just overall for the transportation projects that are really pushing our city. Ahead and giving. Denver ites more choices of how they get around. We support these investments in people who walk, bike and take transit. Transit Alliance backs transit improvements for Federal Boulevard because it's a strategic corridor with the region's second highest ridership. This will help the city achieve its goal of decreasing dependance on single occupancy vehicles, which right now are at a mode share of 73% and climbing. We want that down to. 50% by 2030. Improving mobility options. Including transit through this corridor, is also key to achieving our vision zero goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries by traffic crashes. Already this year, four people lost their lives just walking on Federal Boulevard. Further transit improvements for federal are crucial for meeting the aims of the Federal Boulevard Corridor Plan and the Denver mass transit plan. Most importantly, transit improvements for Federal Boulevard will serve Denver ites, elevating the dignity of transit riders. On our second. Highest ridership route and throwing a lifeline to Denver ites who are struggling to afford to stay in Denver. Improvements such as traffic signal priority and bus stop enhancements help provide. More reliable service for riders. For people living along the socio and economically and racially diverse corridor, access to quality service. Transit service is vital. Transportation is a household second highest cost. A person in. Denver can save more than. $10,000 annually by switching his or her daily commute by car to public transportation. For some Denver rights. That can make the difference for being able to stay in their neighborhood amidst rising housing costs. Finally, the city has to take the lead for improving transit service. Better transit service relies on supportive street design and land use. Without transit support, a street design and land use, RTD cannot deliver more frequent or reliable service. It's imperative that the city of Denver. Prioritizes projects like the Federal Boulevard Transit Improvements in the Go bond package. If we're serious about increasing the number of people who are walking, riding their bikes and riding transit. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Perkins. Christoph Heinrich. The finally director of the Denver Art Museum. In the interest of everybody's time, we the art museum defers as well to Josh Sparks announcement, but we are very happy if occurs later to answer specific questions. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Eric. All right. Guinea. Liberia. I didn't see her. Ginny. Okay. Gabriela medina And this is translation for Gabriela. And so we were to have 6 minutes. When I started this crisis, an opportunity that gave me this present I cannot stress. It was good channel. Star Wars. Good evening and thank you so much for listening to me today and for listening to our voice. My name is Gabriela medina when I visited a monastery, Denver, Colorado, and it was in that other western. My name is Gabriela medina and I live on 972 South Quitman Street in the Westwood neighborhood. Carlos Diaz. Gracias, Alcala. And as committees. Yeah. So this concert. Carlos Padilla on the project and as importantly in the society, El Centro, the recreation pattern establishing that he. I want to thank the mayor and you on the council and everyone on the committee for the great support that we've received and knowing how. Important and necessary. This recreation center is for our neighborhood. Yes, the solicitor general apologizes to this, but assuredly that center, the recreation part. I was just a reminder to those adolescents your trip, I hope you know, casino operator Los Altos Centers the recreation at Tamarac TV that is. I am here asking for your support with the Westwood Recreation Center. I am a mom with two young children, two young kiddos, and I am very worried about about them. I work and sometimes I oftentimes don't have enough time to take them to different activities that they have to do. Me preoccupied Applegate does not intend to share it on the baby must own they just put any anti-gravity technology I got out of central location, not just on the school bus. Janos you're not in any support. Only that. And I'm really worried because we really in our neighborhood, we don't have a safe spot for our kids to spend some time and do recreational activities. When we go outside of outside of our neighborhood, we later find out that once we get there, they're already at capacity and we can't leave it. We can't be there. Do I stay preoccupied at Berlusconi's in establishing that you cannot enter the U.S. at an Italian actividad fisica Unalaska? Yes, I can now is necessary. We can either with the NASA and I'm really worried about our youth because when they don't have a safe place to recreate, then they turn and they turn to things that might not be so good for them and being out on the street. So this is why this is an important thing for me. But I say let's be those to the support of our Rosario. Then in a supporting case I say, Well, not really that, but I know stories in that decades idea which was Corwin escape and I that is why I'm asking you to please support and help with this. It's something very important for the youth and everyone in our community come. A member of the La Comunidad there. What would be the point like initiative at all? I mean that there is Espinosa, Conceicao, Lopez, Borges who, ProQuest, etc. them which are beneficial. As a member of the Westwood community, I would ask you to please support the amendment from Councilmen Espinosa and Councilman Lopez because their proposal would be of much benefit to us. I just think to. Garcia's andina oc hither noise noise. Good evening. Thank you. I'm here to speak to the amendment tonight posed by Councilman Lopez and Councilman Espinosa. My name is Heather Noyes. I live at 4492 Xavier Street. Principal Studio SIPG were landscape architects and we were hired by. Bucharest to generate the Morrison Road Streetscape Implementation Plan. This plan. Furthers citywide. Plan goals. As similar to those contained in the Westwood Neighborhood Plan and the 2015 Health Assessment. I'm here to ask you to support the amendment which targets funding for pedestrian safety improvements for the western end of Morrison Road. Bucharest has done an absolutely remarkable job in preparing this project and positioning this project for implementation, including completing a complete topographic survey and engineering framework, placemaking streetscape. Prototypes for use by private investors and property owners. Facing Strategies. Maintenance Considerations Considerations. Public Engagement Process Review by a. Technical committee comprised of city departments and a detailed opinion of. Probable costs. A few key items for your consideration are the city has been studying Morrison Road for over 20 years and the reason you've been studying Morris and Road for over 20 years is because it's a really complex street. It's very constrained with an extremely narrow right away that cuts at a diagonal through the Denver street grid. And there are no easy solutions for the problems that this street faces. This amendment would allow for pedestrian safety improvements along a section of Morrison Road that has seen. Horrific accidents. And is riddled with public safety concerns, including excessive speeding. Both vehicular traffic and fragmented, unlit sidewalks that. Limit, if not completely eliminate, pedestrian walkability along the street edge during both the day and evening hours. There is significant data available from DPD that can provide detailed information about incidents along this stretch of Morrison Road. We can cite Tennyson Street. As a successful beneficiary. Of a. 2007 bond funding. Tennyson, once, once divided by a dark, scary and unwelcoming stretch of street, is now a super busy commercial destination that hosts local events and offers family friendly street environment. This can be done. We can do it on Morrison Road and bond funding can result in a transformative change that benefits both residential community property owners . These are not fancy. Improvements. There are basic, simple improvements that. Are imperative to the. Health and safety of each and every neighborhood in this city. We ask that you support this amendment to the proposed. List of bond projects. The community has worked very, very hard on this project. Thank you, Miss Noyce. Right on time. All right. I'm going to call the next five. That five can head on down. Former Councilwoman Cathy Donohue. Former Chief of staff Janis Sinden. Other you guys may be farmers, but I mean, I mean and or so Catherine Cape. Right. Uh, Norma, maybe we didn't get your last name. Norma B and. And Elizabeth, otherwise known as a E. All right. One, two, three, four. Yeah. Come on up to the front. And first is Cathy Donahue. I came down here, 1033 Lafayette Street. I came tonight to tell you a little story. When Mayor Mike Nichols was mayor, he had his bond issue in 1979 for $89,000. And they were kept. All the issues were categorized. Parks, museum, library like today. But they were not specific. In what the projects were my age of many years. Jennifer Macey and I did a search about where the $89,000 was spent. We could find only 50%. That will spur on projects in the city of Denver. The rest of the money flew away or did something. I don't know what this is. What is wrong with the design of the bond issue projects? You are not specific enough. You could drive a very large truck to what is proposed and never know where the dollars were going to flow. It's not a good way to do this. It's a very bad way. We passed an ordinance after the McNichols 79 issue. Where. Projects had to be specific with dollar amounts that went on through Kenya and that went on to web. And declined after that. Its $900 million is a lot of money. What I'm concerned about. Is a lack of ability to check up on whether all of that $900 billion is spent wisely and correctly and that we can check it. I want to. Thank you, Mr. Allen, who used to have 37 seconds, but. Okay, Janice, send him. Good evening. Mr. President, members of City Council. I also defer my time. I stand behind what George Sparks submitted and stand with my colleagues and just appreciate your support of the GOP on package. Thank you, Mr.. Catherine Kay Pride. Good evening. Many of you know me as Catherine, but I really go by Kay. Thank you for having me tonight. I think Denver's 27 bond issue did a good job of maintaining and improving 16 of the 26 library branches. But consider that now there are nine branches that need an infrastructure and update improvements that were not included in 2007. So here are some frequently mentioned needs. Let's start by saying that last year. The annual report excuse me, said more than 4.2 million people visited those 26 branches. That's a lot of wear and tear. Think about that. Many people going through your living room. So some some of the improvements that would like to be made here are adequate space to keep youth engaged and learning while they're not in school or at work. Changing demographics in many of the neighborhoods that require some infrastructure changes and also some programmatic changes which would be done operationally. And then also places are needed where the community can gather and connect. So the improvements are designed around those things. You know, some of these branches have not had any work that was significant in more than 20 years. So it's really time. Central Library, which was built 22 years ago. We think of it as new, is 22 years old, needs critical updates. It needs many major maintenance projects and it needs some safety changes. And many of you are already aware of the safety changes that are needed. Some lines of sight in the central library so security can be improved as it is an important one. Two branches that are being included in this proposal are smiley and vires. They are 100 year old historic treasures and they need some significant work. Another library that I would like to point out is Pauline Robinson and North Park Hill. It's tiny, it's crowded and it's in urgent need of expansion. The demographics in that area really require an updated library. So I hope we will have your support for the $69 million that are recommended in improvements for the library in the in the 2017 bond issue. I appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Pratt. Norma B and Norma B has a translation, so she will have 6 minutes. And perhaps you can tell us what that B stands for. Thank you. Barbara Miller But I'm black. And I'm black, okay. When I started, let me know that it wasn't for Wayne Daniels. Good afternoon. My name is Norma Brambilla and I have been a resident from Westwood for 20 years and it says Quattro. Quattro. So Newton is three on six four for. South Newton Street. He had to admit that. So you're not going literally there. They make money there. And I am currently a connector, a leader. In my community. And all is not lost last year at the Little Scamp Fantasy Palo Alto Doodle. But I still want those millions. And before anything, I want to thank everybody who has worked really hard for this go bond 2017. This pooch almost done as I see that is an ankle monitor. Those of you who have. Heard the needs in our community. You can see the company that responded, Ocala Runyon, and went through the process. And as a matter of fact. The community has responded and has been at every meeting with the council and with all the committees that. Has taken place. The Thomason Center recreation we need a rec center is one of necessity. It is a need. Nor is money that it is not a vanity. And it's a company that Kenya in this such a small community that set it on a federal Alameda, Mississippi, from Sheridan to federal Alameda, the Mississippi and the middle of it. There are about 16,000 residents, 20% those on this panel, 80% of them are Hispanic. And those percentiles on minority research annually and 82% of them are under 18. Then the almost all parochial was with bar, and we only had one park, Westwood Park, this border train. Daniels Conseguir, Moselle Park, Cuatro Viento. After 30 years, we were able to get cuatro ventas yarborough. And now, yeah, one moment. The little one is the moment has come for go bond 2017 one center. There is a rec center for our community. Get emails like that. Wilder. We want equity. We want equality. Know Kerry almost Castle in the center. The rehabilitation tunnels to Moscow, Venice. We don't want jails or rehab centers for our youth anymore. No more discrimination for us. Several. No more discrimination for our neighborhood. Not in NASA circles. You are watching us. Pakistan was like Iraq almost siempre entire process. Our community is here like they've always been through the whole process and the total one generation and before everything. Thank you. So that's all that is it for us. And something I saw and I almost forgot. Memo to Ornette Coleman that Gary Hollis Espinoza. Paul, I got excited with the amendment that Councilman. Espinoza and Councilman Paul. Lopez have. Most of it in our federal budget. I'm embarrassed and forget those little as they forget them in almost banquet but go a little southwest to. We need. Sidewalks there to. Grass. Thank you. Crisis. Okay. And Elizabeth. Hi there. First, I want to thank the city council for having this public hearing. I'm here to endorse the cluster of projects in the G.O. bond in the 80216 ZIP Code District nine. Some of it is in transportation and mobility. Some of it is in parks and recreation. And I would like to encourage the council, as you go through the difficult process of honing this, to recognize that there is a holistic combination of things there with the recreation centers pool, with the East 47th Avenue in York, Safety Bridge, with the money to get Washington Street going, bus stops and a variety of things having to do with improving the sidewalk infrastructure that is critical in its call to help compensate and to help relieve the stress by improving the quality of life in these neighborhoods. As these projects converge that are coming rapidly, heavily and mightily with the Central 70, the National Western Center development. What's going on in Brighton Boulevard? I'm I also want to say that I appreciated the great civility that I saw in these incredibly difficult discussions in the committees. I'm very pleased to hear to see the combination of libraries, education, the sorts of things that have to do with learning education. And one thing I want to say about mobility and connectivity and the sense of infrastructure, part of how people can become able to stay in their homes, in the neighborhoods that are multi-generational neighborhoods, is if they can increase the net income of their household and reduce some of the expenses simultaneously through better transportation opportunities, better job opportunities , better learning opportunities, and more access to citywide job opportunities. And so what is being offered in the 800216 zip code is a very critical contribution to that. And I just want to say that the Jill Bond does need to be watched closely. I hope everyone on the city council will go directly and broadly to your constituents in the course of this effort to help educate what the economy is, what's being leveraged, what the accountabilities are, and how we can become involved in the administration and accountabilities, and that we be very transparent, transparent about this. So I would like to ask you to continue with your support that's also coming out of the mayor's office for all of the projects in the 80216 zip code. There were people that were invited tonight that have been attending the committee meetings that said, we're so confident of the support we've gotten on this. We're just going to concentrate on getting the vote out. And that is a good thing. In-A-Row 01644. Some of the constituents feel so supported. This is a get out the vote thing. City Council do not respond as your lawyer is looking at you. Okay. Hi, Brian. Brian, a next five is coming up. Brian, what are. Simon. Trivial. Sorry if I butchered your name. Scion. Lisa. Tara Gorski. Julie. Consult. And. Let's see. Marshall Vanderburg. There we go. First of all. Good evening, Mr. President, member of the council. My name is Brian Vogt. I'm CEO of Denver Botanic Gardens. And two things. Thank you so much for your consideration. And secondly, I see the rest of my time in light of the joint statement read by Mr. Sparks. Thank you. Must vote for shade it, sire. I want you to say your name because I don't want to, but. I'm sorry to reveal. Oh, great. There you. Go. Good evening. My name is Ed Review, and I'm a resident from Westwood. I come here as a youth representative, and what I would like to say is thank you for having our rec center as a top priority, and I hope it stays there. We really need a rec center in Westwood because it's it's a way to communicate with other teens. Most of them stay stay in their house doing nothing. That would be me. But with the rec center, we. I can go outside and make friendships that can last a long time. Having the rec center there. Uh. There's too many teens in our neighborhood, and I personally don't know a lot from my block and with the rec center, it would help. It would help get good influences. Nah, not go outside of your community and go do drugs or get pregnant or something else. It would keep you busy. And it's for me, it would be a it would be a place to study because in my house there's I have four two brothers and a sister. I'm the oldest. I'm 15 years old. And there's not a lot of time and a small place for me to study. And having a rec center with, like, a quiet space would be a perfect place for me to to achieve my dreams that go to college. That would be an opportunity. And thank you. Hey, thank you for coming. And you're welcome back anytime. Yeah. All right, Leslie, Tara Gorski. Thank you very much for having me. My name's Lesley to our Gal Ski. I am a resident of 1754 Olive Street in Denver, Colorado, and this is my first time ever addressing city council as a whole. So I'm a little nervous and thank you for having me. I'm here to speak on behalf of the Espinosa Lopez Amendment. I got very jealous when Frank Logan tour got up and said that Colfax got I think we're up to $70 million federals. Current allocation in the bond is 9.8 million. And as a person who has spent the last year as a member of the Federal Boulevard Corridor study and currently as a member of the Federal Boulevard Corridor implementation team, I think that Councilman Lopez, Councilman Espinosa, myself and several others feel that there's a better way to spend that 9.8 million. It feels horrible to take money away from busses on federal to give it to pedestrians on federal. I hate that we've gotten to the point where we have to make a Sophie's Choice. However, I really feel that with the money, with with the plan that I have on the Federal Boulevard Business Improvement District, we can save that substantially, increase safety for pedestrians, train across federal both at 26th Avenue, which was listed as as a very important corridor for RTD as well as pedestrians. We also have a Denver City high school right there, school as well as veterans housing that was listed as one of the intersections of priority in the Federal Boulevard Corridor study. Again, I want to thank Councilman Lopez and Councilman Espinosa, because I know that public works has worked very hard, but they were able to step back and look at the West Side as a whole and the connectivity again of the Westwood, the Morrison area, North Federal and and trying to get the all of all of us connected is no small feat. And thank you for helping us try to get to a space where this 9.8 million that has been allocated to us can make a little more sense. I appreciate you, Marybeth Sussman, for fighting for a very similar proposal in our neighborhood on East Colfax that was submitted by the Mayfair bid. Again, this is my first time up. I hope it's I hope I don't have to come up again. But if I don't get the chance to come up again before the end of your term, Councilman Lopez, I have to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because for the last ten years, in every meeting you've been in, you've been such a strong advocate for Federal Boulevard and Colfax and West Denver. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tyler Gorski. All right, Julie Casale. I council. Thanks for hearing me tonight. Julia Consult the Community Development Co-ordinator at Brochu West on Morrison Road. I know you've heard a lot about this tonight, so I'm going to speak briefly. I'm here to support the Espinosa Lopez amendment for the additional phasing for Morrison Road. This is extremely important for our community. They fought hard. They've worked hard. The community is here in support of this tonight. Numerous residents came to. Speak at public counsel. And to the committees. The community came forward to show the importance of completing this transit corridor from the West End and the East End to really pinch traffic, to slow it down and make this pedestrian friendly. Right now, the kids try to cross the road with their bikes and they can't. So the parents are continuously driving their kids to school when they're closer to their own youth elementary schools than anywhere else in the city. We know that this additional. 4.2 million is a lot to ask for as it is to funding a different project. But this would provide us a complete central street for Westwood Work to slow traffic and support continued growth for business, aiding us in building a commercial corridor and making this community stand on its own. We're committed to responsibly maintaining this as well. We know you've spoken a lot about deferred maintenance and the pressure of this on the city, and we as a maintenance. District would like to take this on. And our business members understand that again, we urge council to support this amendment. And thank you for hearing me tonight. Thank you, Miss Hop Marshall Vandenberg. Thank you very much. Marshall Vanderburg. 2043 Grove Street in Council District one. Thank you very much for your time this evening. I'm here to speak to the Espinosa Lopez amendment that's on the floor. And I'm also president of the Federal Boulevard Business Improvement District. The the business district is approximately five blocks long along Federal Boulevard, north of West 25th Avenue, and also goes over two blocks or one block over to Elliot Street. The area has historical significance as the town center for the City of Highlands annexed by Denver in 1896. Three blocks reside in the Winter Coalfield Historic District. Created in 1992. By the City Council. During the 1990s, Denver designated Federal Boulevard as a parkway. Also during the nineties, with assistance of federal dollars, Denver installed landscape center medians to enhance the parkway, feel and improve vehicular and pedestrian safety. Since this investment over 20 years ago. Infrastructure. No other infrastructure improvements have occurred. In 2010, commercial vacancy rates in the project area exceeded 40%. Rights of way were aging and soaring, showing signs of deterioration. As board member of the Federal Boulevard Partnership, we organized a streetscape visioning effort involving businesses and residential communities to start addressing these issues. From the plans came additional community plans, community based efforts such as Denver's first Better BLOCK Project along West 25th and Elliott and the Organization of the Federal Boulevard Business Improvement District. To update the streetscape designs and to support pedestrian. Oriented visions of past efforts, the federal bid developed a new set of plans early in 2010. The effort found that while the historic character of the area provides a foundational thematic element, the public right of way infrastructure supporting safe pedestrian mobility is aged and inconsistent. This has further impacted due to population density in and around the project area, accompanied by new development. Several hundred people were involved and have been involved at this point of time. The federal bid led the effort to define this project permanent to the 2017 Denver Go Bond Initiative. It was a Tier one project recommended by the Mayor's Transportation. And Mobility Committee as part of the Go Bond effort. We would very respectfully ask you to support the original reg original recommendation of the Transportation and Mobility Committee and also support this amendment on the floor this evening. I'm happy to be available for questions later on this evening as necessary. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Vanderburg. Next. Group. Dan Schorr. Peep. Van Haven. Lance Wright. Uh. Mauricio Gomez. Oscar Gomez. Um. Dan, you're up first 3 minutes. Okay. Well, good evening, council members, and. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm Dan Schorr. I live at 3014 Fourth Street. But I'm here. Tonight on behalf of the West Colfax Business Improvement District and to talk about Colfax East and West. First of all, you know. To both all of you and the mayor, a great deal of thanks. I feel a great deal of gratitude. Just for putting trans, you know, for. The transparency that has been, you know, that throughout the process and the prioritization on improving mobility for pedestrians and the responsiveness to the public in general. And and that is all that all resulted in tremendous support. Thank you so much. For the support of Colfax improvements which Frank Looking Tory. Earlier spoke to. I can only you know if I could just you know put did oh marks under there. Thank you. So that that's wonderful and. So in terms of. The amendment that has been offered by Espinosa. Lopez. Espinosa. That's really why I'm here to talk as well. I want to speak in favor of that. I as I mentioned, I live on Forest Street, which is in Park Hill, as you probably know. And I work in West Colfax. I take about, you know, some percentage of the time I take the 15 L, which is effectively what will become the BRT. Same routing, same busses, revised busses, that kind of thing. It is an unbelievable connection to go from west to east side all the way east on Colfax. I get off at Glencoe. I get on in Decatur. Get off in Glencoe. Bring that further west so that the rest of the people in Denver who live on the west side along Colfax can make that connection and can get back and forth, east and west in town. That is a huge opportunity. And from the. 2.0 or the 1.9 million in that amendment is great leveraging in my mind for it, looking at networks. Through the city and. How to best connect in really efficient ways and make transportation sort of like advance public. Transportation in the city. So really, for those reasons, I would really support your. I support the amendment on behalf of the West Colfax Business Improvement District, and I hope that you. Will just be. I again, thank you for your incredible. Effort. To show. Balancing. Effort. Your time is. Up. Balancing time. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Miss Shaw. Even here. Hi. Good evening. My name's Pippin Haven. I live in Park Hill and District eight and I'm here to support the current Gabon transportation package. I also represent Bicycle Colorado and. Denver's active. Transportation organizations that are members of the Denver Streets Partnership. We supported through this process the bond process, citywide sidewalks and citywide bike lanes, and unfortunately there are a few cuts in the executive committee. But we were really pleased to see that there were also some very important bicycle and pedestrian projects that were reinstated through the process. We also really appreciated the process. It was clearly going to be broad and inclusive. It was obvious from the beginning with the community representation on the subcommittees and just with all the different opportunities that the community had to comment and provide feedback. And I really would like to commend the city on the process from our perspective. Right now, Denver's. Reached a pivotal moment with regard to transportation. We know there's tremendous pressure, pressure on our transportation system. There's challenging traffic problems, and clearly there's a lack of safe and complete networks for people who are walking and biking. That's our issue. We see three key areas that Denver's facing. Really, the first one is a single occupancy vehicle issue. About three quarters of people in Denver are driving alone to work and our population is increasing. The people who want to. Walk and bike and take transit aren't. Able to yet because the safe options don't exist. The second is a public safety issue. One person every two weeks walking or biking on Denver streets was killed last year and one person every two weeks died walking or biking in Denver. So let that sink in for a minute and consider. That that's not people who are out jogging. It's not people out for a road wide ride. It's people who are trying to get from point A to point B. And the third is really that our transportation priorities have been out of balance for many years. So we are now to address our active transportation need, forced to play catch up. We know that creating a livable, walkable, bikeable Denver is important not just because mode shift is the only way to address congestion congestion, but also because how we get around town speaks to what we value as a city. Many, many mobility options are going to bring individual and community economic opportunity and transportation equity also for neighborhoods that have been ignored and forgotten. For many years. Transportation is the second biggest household expense after housing, so that's thousands of dollars in savings for families that can figure out how to reduce their dependance on driving. Looks like I'm about out of time, so I'd like to say we support the final package of transportation projects because the dollars are going to help increase safety access and connect people across neighborhoods. And we look forward to working with the. Mayor and his council and. Staff to create a safe, connected, bikeable and walkable Denver. Thank you. Thank you. It's been moving. We are at one hour. However, we still have a couple more. So if council allows and folks in the audience allow, we're going to keep going to in three more left. And thank you cultural for giving us another 15 minutes. Lance Right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the Council. My name is Lance Wright, and I live at 1960 South Gilpin Street, which is down in Councilman Cashman's district. And I'm not sure exactly what I hope to accomplish tonight in 30 seconds, but I do want to raise the issue of autonomous vehicles. To the extent that any of this I must I'm going to confess, I have not paid a great deal of attention to the bond issue up until about a month ago. And the reason I didn't was because I was a good Democrat. That looks like a tax increase. I was going to vote for it the that. A month ago, though, I heard a presentation by a gentleman named Tony Seeber, who is a Stanford professor, talking about how quickly the autonomous vehicles are going to take, are going to be in existence and going to start changing our transportation concepts about what a road can handle. His predictions are that it will be about five years before and only five years before we start changing of lanes into autonomous vehicle lanes. And the car has to be going 60 miles an hour all the time, a foot and a half apart, and we will double the trains, the capacity of freeways , to the extent that the bond issue may have at least a couple of what road widening lane addition projects i. Hope that we can take advantage of the staged authorization of the bonds and expenditures so that we can make sure we're not building a roadway that is obsolete when we get it done. And by the way, I'm not particularly nervous when you see me shaking up here. It's because I've got Parkinson's. And usually if I see that's going to be a problem, I say that upfront so that you know that I know that, you know, I know I have Parkinson's and it's no big deal. So don't worry about me fainting. I'm not going to faint, at least not from Bashful Ness about speaking in front of an audience. So that's the point that I wanted to let you hear tonight, that autonomous cars are coming and they're coming rapidly. Uh, they're out there now already and experimental numbers. But when it happens, it will revolutionize our concept of a freeway. And Denver shouldn't spend any money on an obsolete, freeway widening project if that's in the works. Without real careful consideration for how the world is changing. Usually we can look at the past to see what worked well in the past and extend extend at a certain distance into the future. But the past is not going to be an example for us to follow. We need to look to the future and computers will be driving your car while you're reading about the council meetings proceedings the night before. Lord. Help us all. Thank you, Mr. Wright. Rizzo. Gomez. Mr. Gomez, would you guys like translation? Okay, I think we need a translation. But. Hold on real quick, Oscar. I think. Okay. Go ahead. Meaning that it is for these sad. My name is Risa. His friends. The sympathy and the misery that he. E. Oh. But I mean. The bridge is important for my friends and for me. Glass. Yes. Yes. Very well done. Give her a hand. Go ahead. Go ahead, Oscar. When I started as missionaries, those cargo. Ms.. Sawyer residents that embed into the Elvis scenario, Illyria. Good evening. My name is Oscar Gomes. I am a resident from Denver, a resident from the Illyria neighborhood. In S.A. Chair Opera Bayless por favor. And tonight I am here to to ask you, please. The mitten is the bucket they inteiro but alcoholic or poor solution diseases. To go through this complete go through the complete package for the zip code 80216. The street on Webber. District nine. Cares more importantly but on but no, no my spare to me. This is not only important for me. See, no, it's important the parrot owners to seahorse. It's important for all of our children. And was true seahorse apparatus can no plane you got a less quality. Ample. There are barriers for our children such as because they can't get to school on time. There are certain barriers. No, you got to tomorrow somewhere. So no. They can't get to have breakfast at school on time. For Kowloon train not advisable and Quarantine City York. Because there is a train that stops there on 47th and York. No, no, importa. Forgive me. My students had order in in in in Latin rapport can no one gets. It doesn't even matter that my. Mai Mai can get stuck on the dirt because we don't have sidewalks. Simplemente didn't know they were very slippery, transparent, astro seahorse. But simply we shouldn't have these barriers for our children. Ninguna Barrera for is important. Thank you Jagan. I learned that we will take us. Not one single barrier. It's important that they're able to get to our libraries. Again as true and central direction to be. Able to get to our rec centers. Especially in the Baraka Yeganeh was you know when education. And especially so that they can get there to get a good education. For the support of our second Adelante Canal Proyecto total spaghetti the la the then strawberries in areas Globeville Elyria is Swansea here? So this is why I asked to please continue with the full package for the neighborhoods of Globeville, Elyria and Swansea. E e grass at all sustainable grasses. And thank you to all of you. Thank you to our mayor ee. And God bless you. Thank you, Mr. Gomes. This concludes our speakers is now time for questions. I want to take a moment of privilege and ask the first one. Ray Gee from Globeville. I know you didn't get a chance to to sign up, but I wanted you to get it. Get a chance to share a little bit. Thank you. I appreciate that. Good. Good evening. I know it's pretty long. Everybody needs to stretch and everything. So my name is Ray Gallegos. I live in Globeville. I'm representing the GSA Coalition for Health and Housing Justice, as well as the Cross Community Coalition. And I just wanted to address the council and talk a little bit about the report that we did last year. I know some of you guys got it. Some of you may not have yet. You know, not everybody knows me, but I'm sure a lot of you will eventually. I just want to first off say that, you know, as a community of Globeville living in Swansea, we're we're a little disappointed that we don't get to say in in very important dollars that are coming to our community. You know, we really do need emergency housing right now for people who are being displaced. There's 88% of people who are at risk of being displaced right now as we speak. You know, with CDOT coming through and doing the I-70 expansion, Western Stock Show doing their renovation there, they're they're displacing a lot of people. A lot of these people who have been here for generations and years are not being able to continue to live in these communities where they have their roots and their families that I want to you know, I want you guys to take into consideration that we do need affordable housing. We have a solution as a community owned land trust for our communities to be able to to continue to stay here. And this would also benefit the city by alleviating some of the problems for people who are who are counting on Section eight, food stamps, health, you know, health assistance, things like that. If we can get this housing done. It'll cost about $15 million to run this for five years. And, you know, this you know, this would be one time investment. It'd be able to continue to have people to have homes, affordable housing for years and years. So it's a one time investment rather than having to reinvest money into Section eight or housing assistance and things like that. And this is the reason why I'm here, is I do want to advocate for these, you know, for for you guys to consider allocating some of these funds for affordable housing, emergency housing, like there's people who are who are at risk right now. 88%, eight out of ten of these people who live in these communities are being pushed out. Is $14 million the cost to replace the homes? See, that is taken. And that's you know, that's almost pretty much the housing fund that you guys are allotting to us. So, you know, just to put sidewalks in is not an improvement. So our community, we need help with creating that affordability, the sustainability of housing. And we need to get these funds, you know, to our community and not just to improve infrastructure that's going to bring more people in here, more outsiders, more people who are just developing and trying to make money on the plight that's going on here in these neighborhoods. So I really appreciate you guys time. Please, if you get a chance to look at the report, if you don't have the report as coalition dot com, you can download a copy. Anybody here in the chambers would like to see it, please. There's a very big housing and health crisis here. Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for letting me speak. You guys have a good night. I have kids to put to sleep. Thank you, Mr. Gallegos. All right, Kendra Black, you're up with questions. Councilwoman Q I wanted to ask a question about what former Councilwoman Cathy Donahue brought up. So maybe Laura Perry. She just walked out, unfortunately. But I know in my my two years as a council person, I have received multiple briefings on how the 27 better Denver bond was spent. And so to address her concerns, I feel like you are one of the most competent people I've ever met in my life. You are on top of it. And you know where every single penny has been spent ever? Yes. Wow. You go. Laura and I feel very confident that that you will stay on top of this bond in the same way. So if you could just explain to everyone how you go about doing that. Absolutely. So we have an extensive project control system in the city that consists of a very strong governance structure, particularly around our financings. So for the better Denver Bond Program, as I commented earlier, we implemented our what we've called our bond executive committee that was comprised of department leadership. The Mayor's office, Department of Finance, as well as a member from city council. And that group was truly the oversight body that reviewed every project, its current status. And if we all recall in Better Denver we experienced the Great Recession. So there was a lot of project savings that were reprogramed for additional project needs throughout the city. And that committee also worked through the governance structure around how those funds were programed with the goal that we complete every single project that was committed to the voters, and we truly did accomplish that. In fact, we accomplished 100 more projects the better the bond program that was promised to the voters. So that was a huge success story. Through the Better Denver Bond program, we instituted quarterly reporting, which consisted of both a website presence as well as regular presentations to the Land Use and Transportation Committee that still continues today. We also have extensive project tracking systems, so on the technical side, we do track every dollar to the penny as well as every single project when it started, when it was completed. And actually for our Better Denver Pan program, we have a one page write up for every 388 projects that were completed. So there is strong institutional record there about the great successes that we had in that particular program. And of course, last but not least, I want to mention that in our annual budget we also report out on our bond programs in that we show how much has been spent in the particular prior year as well as what's estimated to be spent, and an update on the status of all the projects underway for all of our financed programs. Okay. Great. That comes when I'm black. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. I actually want to before I jump to Councilman Flynn, call Kweli or anyone from the legal team to ask a question around Bond. Um, not only. So not only do we feel like we have a responsibility and some systems built in financially through our fiscal responsibility, but we have some legal responsibilities in how we spend that money . So real quickly, what are our parameters in a kind of very macro? And what happens if we spend money outside that? Good evening, President Brooks. Council members. Yes, there are legal parameters around how these proceeds can be spent. And in addition to the kind of tracking that Laura has described, there are legal requirements in terms of making sure that we're spending money in a timely fashion. So I think, Councilman Brooks, one of the questions you're asking is around the timeframe in which the proceeds need to be spent. The rule is that you have to spend the dollars from the date you issue the bonds so that that process is that we will come back to you with a bond ordinance. And once that ordinance is adopted, we'll actually go out to the market and issue bonds from the date that they're issued. You have three years to spend. 85%. If what? If what if we don't? What if we take four years? What if you take five years? What happens? Well, you have a you need to have a reasonable expectation that you're going to spend 85% in three years. If you if we exceed that period of time. There are things that we can do. There are remedial steps that we can take. Okay. And what about, you know, the specific question around spending outside a specific purpose. So before you, you have seven different ballot measures. Each measure speaks to a particular purpose. As we spend our dollars, when we issue the bonds, we will do it in accordance with those seven different purposes. So, for example, if we spend, we decide we're going to say we're going to issue $100 million of debt in the first tranche. Not. First issuance. How about that first series? You can say trends that might cover four or five different purposes, but we will track and last time will be tracking how many dollars we're spending in each purpose, because the voters are going to give us authorization to spend up to a certain dollar amount for each purpose. So, for example. Is there real quick and you don't have to go in to that, but specifically, is there any penalties that the city will endure if we go outside of a purpose that voters have authorized? We legally we don't have authority to do that. So the voters are going to give us authority to issue approximately 116. I don't I don't have the numbers. Yeah. Hundred and $16 million for the purpose of improvements to cultural facilities. So that's where I just wanted to put a fine remark on that, that we don't have the authority to do what was stated earlier to spend outside a specific purpose. Yes, that's correct. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. A number of questions, Laura. Could you tell me what the current thinking is with regard to how much in principal amount might be devoted to the mini bond program with a program of this size? Certainly. And as you know, Councilwoman Ortega and I have been urging you to size it a lot larger than the 2007. So there is a commitment to follow through with a mini bond transaction for the upcoming bond. However, an amount at this time has not been determined. Okay. So is there any thinking about whether it would be more than that? There was a 12 million last time. I'm going to actually invite Brendan Hanlon or CFO. To go because I have some questions for him too. Good. And, and he did well because I actually prepared him. I told him I was going to ask the other questions. So. And these are bonds that individuals can purchase. So they're in small enough power amounts that we can you know, homeowners can purchase them and and really invest in their own neighborhoods and get a return on them. So it's a really good program. That's right. Good evening. Brendan Hanlin, the city's chief financial officer. I think this question came up a couple of weeks ago as well. So far, the Department of Finance is committed to a program that is at least as large as leasing. In 2011, we did hear feedback about having a larger program. We're willing to entertain that conversation. The one thing I have to caution is that there is a higher administrative cost to processing that, and we pay a higher interest rate on those transactions. So we just have to balance that out around the needs of the program. But we're willing to have that conversation. Okay. Thank you. And while you're there, Brendan, you know that one of my greatest disappointments with this package is in the public safety package, because for ten years, folks in southwest Denver had been. Virtually promised that the district for police station replacement would be part of this bond issue. We would. We were told to wait the turn. And and I dearly love that we're doing Districts five and District six because they probably need it more than District four. But in the alternative to waiting another ten years before we can issue another round of general obligation bonds. What kind of tools do we have and can we start using them in 2018, for instance, you know, bringing you do an architectural study or a programmatic study or some sort of incremental approach to the CIP program to get a start on providing some relief down there. Councilman, you allude to the proper first steps in and really identifying funds is the first thing you have to do is really identify the scope and figure out what exactly you're going to do. That would require some incremental funding that could be funded through something like CIPA or the general fund or something along those lines, which is something that we're considering at this point. And then that would help define a larger scope, which might require larger tools. I think the last time I was here, I said, we just have to make sure we're matching the size of the tool with the size of the project. Right. So do you know, can you say if the administration right now, which is preparing 2018 budget, will this be will will something for district for police station be included in the budget, if you know? So we're working through the 2018 budget as it stands. So you don't know. We're not done with it yet. I could tell you that it's something under consideration, though. Okay. And can you speak to the transportation bonds or who can speak to that? I probably need to bring. Some in in Council Bill 812, which is the referring to the ballot, the transportation package. I noticed as Mr. President, as you know, I. Would. An error what I think is an error, and maybe we need to correct it, but it refers to rehabbing the Eighth Avenue Viaduct. I believe it's an $8 million scope. There's been some bearing issue with the bearings in the piers, but he refers to it as an 88 year old structure. The Eighth Avenue Viaduct was just it was done under Mayor Pena. And I know it seems like a while ago, but it wasn't 88 years. Are we referring to the actual viaduct over the rail yards, or are we referring to the bridge over the Platte? Over the Platte. It is referring to the bridge over the Platte, which has not been replaced. Since. It was constructed. Because when I think of the Eighth Avenue Viaduct, I think of the over the rail yards, which are now closed. And so. Okay, thank you. I believe, Mr. President, that's all I have right now. Nice. Nice try. Councilman Fletcher. Well, it's not a fight. It's the bridge over the plaque. Should which should we change that? To change that to the Platte River Bridge, Eighth Avenue. Platte River Bridge, rather than the Viaduct Council. Is that a real question? Yes. Because the Eighth Avenue Viaduct is a different structure. Just a question, Mr. Perez. I do have one more thing. I shouldn't have said anything. I would have to defer to the city attorney's office for the amendment in the companion ordinance and what that would look like. However, we will be sure to adequately describe the scope. Sorry, I. Just don't misapplied the money to the viaduct instead of the the river the river bridge. They all save the other the other as a comment and I'll save that. Okay? Yes. Okay, that'll work. Councilman Lopez. Thank you. My question had been answered, but Councilman Flynn, I do appreciate that technically it is not a viaduct. But just so you know, I was the only bridge in that one of the only bridges in Denver that. Survived survived the flood. That's right. That's right. Still there. It was opened in 1929. Okay. Okay. Question question. 28. Councilor Lopez, was that your question? Mine was answered. Okay, great. Okay. Councilwoman Ortega and then Black. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm not sure who in the audience or maybe a couple of my colleagues that have been working on the Colfax BRT. I just wanted to ask, is that proposed to go down in the center of Colfax? Yeah. That's the new design. Yes. And Chrissy Agnello, I see you back there behind those heads. And raising this because I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, about three or four weeks ago, and they are building a similar project down the center of one of their main streets. Yeah. And everybody in the community is complaining about it because people will be let off into traffic. It's it. And I'm I'm assuming that, you know, we've been looking at this very carefully, and I, I would hope they they were as well, but. You know, in order for people to be let off on the platform, the busses will have to go in the wrong direction on, you know, in order for them to be let off. And I don't know how far along we are with the. You know, design of how this would work. But can you help me just understand how that is proposed to work so we're not creating a greater safety problem for residents or for pedestrians that are would be utilizing this bus BRT. And I apologize, I haven't sat through all the meetings where this has been, you know, proposed and worked on with the community. Yeah, thanks for having me up, Chrissy. Thank the director of Transportation Mobility for the city and it's a good question. So when we were out of the public last week, one of the things we heard about with regards to Colfax, BRT, was can you make it better? And so we actually took some time over the last year to look at the geometries along the corridor to see if center running could fit, because if it didn't fit, then we weren't going to move forward and we were able to determine that it does actually fit geometrically. We're not terribly far along in the design. We've got some funding available right now to actually help us start to move forward. It's it's a little bit it's much easier to see in a picture or a video. The busses will still have the normal right side boarding that they have today. They will pull into the station and on the right is going to be where the platform will be, where it'll be at least 10 to 14 feet, where that's where the folks will get on and off, will have some railings to sort of direct folks to actually crossing at the intersections with. Colfax is one of the highest injury network's roadways on the network for Vision Zero. We actually believe this will help significantly with reducing the safety issues that are out there for pedestrians in particular. Great. Thank you. I do have a couple others. I just and they're not necessarily questions, they're more comments. So I do. You want to you want to wait to the comment portion? Sure. Yeah. Let me just make sure I didn't have any other questions. Okay. Okay. The rest are all comments. So thank you. Great. I'm sorry. The apprenticeship piece. This was something that came up at the mayor council meeting last week, and the mayor said this is something that he's looking at, he's working on. Do any of you have any information on progress? I see Evan coming to the microphone. David Dreier, can you Evan, can you tell us kind of where this is at in the process so that as we're looking at this almost million dollar bond package that we will have a firm commitment to. And as you all know, there's so much construction going on. We don't have enough trained, skilled workers and being able to utilize both union and nonunion apprenticeship programs to help ensure that we've got the workforce needed to do these projects. Where are we in the process of that being a critical element of the bond package? Good evening, Council. Evan Dreier, Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Hancock. A couple of points about that. The carpenters union came to us a few weeks ago with this idea, which in one way or another. Has been kind of kicking around for a little while. Quietly reminded us very quickly that we can't actually use bond proceeds for programmatic purposes like job training or apprentice or pre apprentice programs, which is a very helpful reminder. But I think there is a lot of interest in pursuing this kind of a concept. And I think there are a few different council members, including yourself, that have been looking at it for a little while. So our request is let's move these bills through the council process on the bond and then let's figure out a process where we are all at the table. Trying to look at this together, because there are. There are billions of dollars of public projects that will be moving through the pipeline over the next ten plus years. And we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to provide jobs and skilled skills training to folks that will be filling those jobs. Well, and it's important to make sure that we don't have people who are being impacted in what is becoming almost citywide, gentrified neighborhoods to be able to have people afford to stay in their own communities. So it's a critical component. Agreed. So nothing further has taken place yet then in terms of next steps that the administration is working on, it's just a commitment to do it. But maybe I think it sounds like you're suggesting that we pull a meeting together with some of the folks who are interested in making this happen. Correct. Including Denise Bryant. Our director of work for me. Okay. Thank you. I'm looking forward to us taking that next step soon. We are, too. Thank you. Thank you. I'll wait on my comments until the end. Okay. Thank you. All right. The public hearing for Council Bill four four for the combined public hearing of all the council bills is now close. We have comments by members of council. But I want to I want to say that we have seven bills and I want to, you know, get you know, council members could make a comment on one bill to, you know, take care of the entire package or you can make a comment per bill. But I would ask that you think about that judicious in your comments. So, Councilman Espinosa. Thank you, Mr. President. This is a single brief comment. It's long, but it's brief. First of all, I want to thank you all. Truly thank you all for paying attention to this process. Clearly, it's been done because everything that I mentioned that should be scrutinized a little harder in this bond process was mentioned here tonight or via email defending their inclusion . So thank you for persisting. It is important to put people to those projects, so it's really nice to see you all out here speaking to it and supporting the process. I want to thank Councilman Lopez. For his thorough work on finding this amendment that we put forward tonight. And this amendment opportunity, I should say, which is greatly simplified. The amendment request, due to initial confusion at the beginning of the job on process, a tiny but high priority project was removed from consideration that is added through this amendment. Our amendment funds pedestrian infrastructure that has gone unfunded since it was included in the 19. In the 1995 intergovernmental agreement between city and sea that went public, this public right away was altered and lost to a widened I-70 through the city. I mean, I-25. Sorry. Freudian slip there. Sorry. At a time at a time when single occupant drivers have increased it more in northwest Denver neighborhoods, the nearest nearest to downtown than any other place in the city. Supporting this amendment will encourage and further prioritize free and safe walking through important public right of ways in west and North Denver. So so everything that I mentioned. Somehow I got to cut and pasting sounds. So I want to thank you. And sorry about this is not my normal computer. So free and safe walking through this important these important public roadways in west and north Denver. So please join me along with those whom spoke in support of this amendment and vote yes. Thank you very much. All right, Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. A procedural question, is the amendment on the floor yet? Because I had a question on the amendment. This amendment is now on the floor. It will get to the floor at 819, where? At 812. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Then I will. Can I make comments on the package as a whole? It said in the ordinance designating the projects. I just wanted to let folks know that next week I may propose an amendment to change the words, for example, to the word, including, as we had in earlier bond issues, so that these projects are included and not just examples that may or may not be may or may not be done. I want to provide the public with some assurance that these projects listed are included and not just examples of projects we may do. So I've asked for that to be drafted and circulated among my colleagues during the week. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Councilman Flynn. Councilman Lopez. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. We'll speak to the amendment when we cross that that bridge, not the viaduct. I wanted to thank everybody. Take us, Laura, the team, they did such a great job. You know, when we first talked about the bond and how we were planning on for us, I mean, you got to include Corky Gonzalez library as a site. I just I just remember I remember a picture that was printed in The Denver Post. And I think it's just something that John Murray had wrote about. And in the picture was Norma's hand with a whole bunch of stickers and the whole bunch of stickers were just centered around this this neighborhood that I grew up in and I live in. And, and, um. I was just I'm just happy as a city councilman to be part of a bond that addresses equity. That's really a revolutionary and progressive, forward thinking bond that helps balance the city. And that's what it's doing. Its per its equity is different from equality and equity leveling the playing field so that we all have the opportunity to compete and not necessarily to compete in this case, but to really give neighborhoods the opportunity to prove who they are. Right. And just what how important they are to Denver and on an equal level playing field and to to hear folks tonight hear that wonderful little girl giving us things. Right. That's just that's just the tip of the iceberg of what this is about. And I know we're going to face a lot of criticism. I know we already hear it from our critics. But at the end of the day, these are these are the very projects that are going to be the game changers for the neighborhoods. Right. The bridge, the Sixth Avenue. You look at the the the transit mobility throughout the city and the West Side, the connection. And, you know, I could just say this, colleagues, you know, there's there's nothing better than seeing those things come to fruition. And it's taken a very long time to get to this point. And there's a lot of hard work that's represented here. These aren't just things that just end up on a on a on a Post-it, you know, with Post-its on a wall or they're not just things that just end up with numbers by them. These are actually every single one of these projects has work to it. Right. And effort to it. And. And having said that, I'm just very I'm very glad to actually be part of this bond and seeing it move forward now. And, you know, we put it on the ballot, but it's going to take voters, it's going to take our public getting out there and approving it. And I just have to say this and and just thank you to all of you who participated. Thank you all for identifying these issues, for identifying these needs, and not just being an armchair activist at home in front of a computer, but somebody that comes out to these meetings, someone that visits some of the talks about these priorities, someone that shows up at a microphone, even if you're only four years old. Right. You have a voice and it matters. And thank you. And this is you know, I just kind of think about one of my colleagues recently. It's blew my mind. Right. And it shouldn't blow my mind, but. Paul Kasten We were having a conversation, he says, you know, and somebody says, Hey, you know, what do you think your purpose is? What's your purpose? And we all thought about our purpose. And he says, to restore our faith in government. That's exactly it. And his bond helps get us there. Right. And for a lot of people on the west side, it's going to restore that faith in government. So now there's a couple of other things that I want to paint is to make sure you all know it's never over until it's over. And we want to make sure that before before he hits the ballot, that everything's. Organized to reflect just that that work that passionate work product that comes out of the neighborhoods. Right. Those are the priorities. So and it's by number one, which was the crisis of those days, because that NAKI can win year on year participation. You see a Luciano Londono seller was. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Councilman New. I also want to thank the two tigers and Laura and Courtney I honestly Courtney here and I and so but also I want to thank the woman who is sitting back there real quietly in the back row. And I say in a word is Dianne Barrett, who's been the the mother of all bonds here. And she. Is. She is she is her leadership is invaluable. And what a great team she assembled. And they've done a magnificent job, though the feedback we got from the public, which is phenomenal, it was a great process where everybody was participating and felt good about it and gave, gave, gave their $0.02, even know that even though they knew they weren't going to get all the money they wanted, but they felt like they were valued and and their input was was truly appreciate. We do have some you know, I fully support this bond issue. And I just hope the citizens will look at each one of those items carefully and and each item and I was in the Parks Task Force, and we went through every item in excruciating detail asking questions. So there's a lot of attention paid to every specific item in this bond issue. So I hope the public will take a look at it and then ask questions if there's information that you can get on the website or the staff's here to help . And and it's just a very important you understand how important this bond issue is. But also, I can't help but say we also got to keep in mind, we've got other needs coming down the road. Our strategic planning processes are coming due next next year. And and and Councilwoman Susman made sure get our transit agency and hopefully hopefully Christie will get a dedicated revenue stream for transit. We're to we're just taking the baby steps with transit. And so we've got to come up with additional money down the road. So this important bond issues is is going to be a good start. And, you know, just let the citizens know it really helps build a great city. I appreciate all the efforts. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. So, first of all, I want to just express my support for the amendment that is that has been talked about tonight. I think those improvements for Westwood in the Federal Boulevard corridor are important to address pedestrian safety. Really pleased to see that so much around mobility, pedestrian and bike safety is a big part of this process. I know this council has been very vocal about those kinds of things, have been sort of high priorities in our annual planning process and has resulted in more and more funding in the annual budget. And this bond package takes that significantly further in addressing issues that many neighborhoods across the city put on the table as wanting more walkable, bikeable neighborhoods. I want to express my appreciation to the entire city team for the many neighborhood meetings that were held across the city that truly gave Community the opportunity to go to a meeting in their own respective district, you know, in their neighborhood where they could share what their priorities were. I know all of our city agencies had their lists as well, identifying their priorities and to the. Multitude of volunteers that were on the different committees that had to help whittle down those lists and put forth a list to the executive committee that then worked with the mayor's office. This truly engaged our community in a way that I haven't seen that that just. Was so inclusive in to Councilman Lopez's point that that truly addressed equity as well. And to see that the Alameda underpass, which was an issue going back to when I represented part of that District 47th in York, which is a huge concern. If you have not seen when trains are stopped at 47th and York and children are trying to walk to school and literally climbing in between unmanned train cars. It's we're lucky we haven't seen a horrific accident. So this is a really, really important component of this bond package, 56th Avenue, which I know Councilwoman Gilmore has has been very vocal in wanting to see in this package, because we know when that I-70 project starts, traffic is going to be going through our neighborhoods. And it's important that they the traffic stays on arterial corridors and not through the residential neighborhoods. The sidewalk piece that is going to address the needs for sidewalks, I know the geese, neighborhoods, Globeville area, Swansea, who have never enjoyed the benefit of that basic infrastructure that many of our neighborhoods have. I know other neighborhoods have bits and pieces here and there, but these neighborhoods really have not enjoyed that. And this is going to go a long way in assisting bringing that basic standard of living up for for those neighborhoods. The one thing I'm I'm really sad is not part of this package and you heard a number of the speakers talk about is the fact that we have no affordable housing in this package. And when you consider the size of it, you would have thought we would have carved out a way to ensure that we've got more than the $15 million that was worked on by Councilman Brooks and Councilwoman Kennedy. But if our HUD funding goes away, all that does is is replace that. So the need for us to continue to work to ensure that we have more dollars to address affordable housing is is so critical to us continuing to be a diverse city which, you know sadly we're we're losing our diversity at rapid pace as. I also appreciate the mayor's office, his commitment to the apprenticeship program, which I know can't be part of the Bond language, but it could be part of the contracts that we have with our contractors that will be doing much of this work. And lastly, the fact that we will have the companion ordinances that will go with each of the package to ensure that, you know, the dollars stay within each of those categories. If for some reason a particular issue doesn't move forward, the dollar stay within that category. So thank you to everyone, including my colleagues who sat on the various committees as well. Councilman Brooks, you were part of the executive committee. It was a lot of work, but we've got some great projects in this package that are moving forward. And I'm I'm excited to be a strong supporter of this one package moving forward and look forward to talking to our neighborhoods as I'm out and about in the community. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Herndon. Thank you, Mr. President. Like most, I want to give kudos to the team for all the work that they have done up to this point. When you have the needs that we have versus the resources, there are several difficult decisions that had to be made. And I appreciate the conversations that I have had with the administration. They have understood my my desire to try to increase library funding. And even though it's not something I'm going to bring an amendment forward on, I still am I still something I want to work really hard for our libraries because those are investments in people. And as I hear and compliment everyone for all the work, then as I look at it, that was just the easy part because it's all for not if we can't get it to pass in November. And so for those of us that are supportive of the bond as I am, we have work to do to make sure that people understand what they will be voting on because there will be several questions on the ballot and the importance of each and every one of them so that we can continue have a great city. We have to make these investments. And even beyond that, what do we do for the investments that could make it in this bond package? Because we cannot afford to wait another ten years. As Councilman Flynn and I, during the break, we're talking about his police station. And so we can't afford another ten years before that comes. Other projects for our bikes and infrastructure for sidewalks. We've got to find ways to get this done. So a lot of work is still ahead of us, but I want to applaud everybody for their efforts and we will we will get it done. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Herndon, Councilwoman Cannick. Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to thank all the speakers tonight, especially the members of the public who stayed late on the hard benches. And I am very impressed with the unity that has been demonstrated for folks who maybe didn't get full funding for projects or, you know, got some projects but not others. For some neighborhoods, I think it's an incredible testament to the coming together of a community. And on that point, I think what's really powerful for me, I think, is the way that this conversation has crystallized a couple of things that I hope will become precedents for the future. I taught our law school class recently back at my alma mater, and I was teaching about the difference between equality and equity. And equality is where you have a pie and you divide up all the pieces and that's equal. But equity is where you look at where there is historic disadvantage and where there's structural inequity. And you say that sometimes you have to invest a little more to overcome those things. And I think that, you know, we've heard tonight about the Westwood Recreation Center. We've heard about some of the investments in Globeville area, Swansea, you know, the the bridge that Councilman Ortega worked so hard on. And I think that the the fact that the community has come together around this package in the council is, you know, at least based on last times, comments coming together around this package is a sign of us understanding, a really nuanced conversation about how the way we spend infrastructure, resources can help to both, you know, rectify, mitigate and help to prevent that kind of inequity from from reoccurring in our city in the future. Right. So that we don't have the same kind of historic challenges in terms of health disparities or poverty or safety of of lack of sidewalks, things like that. So so I'm especially proud of that piece of it. And I appreciate how this isn't just something that came from the community, but it was also echoed by the staff and the guidelines and the criteria and from the mayor. So I felt like that was coming from both the top and the bottom. I think apprenticeship actually fits in that same lens. And I, you know, just to to to just pick a little bit at the the legal advice, again, apprenticeship is a procurement requirement, just like is . So when you want wealth to be spread to the owners of businesses who are women or minorities, the way that we do that is we say, if you want to do business with the city, it's important that you have women and minority owned businesses on your team. We don't pay them for that. It's not a program funding. It's something that it's an expectation that they bring to the table when they bid. Apprenticeship works in the same way it works by saying, if you would like to do business with the city, show us that you have training programs that are bringing people along. We have a real financial interest in this in the city. It's not just to do good thing. It is. It's important to build training and create pathways to careers for folks. But Stu Williams at the airport will tell us that when there's a shortage of construction workers, we pay. We pay as a city more for our projects and more for the labor. And so it is very much in our pecuniary financial interests to have contractors investing in that training and doing that training. I'm not going to say there's not the benefit of city resources for things like pre apprenticeship or maybe providing, you know, boots or childcare, things that can complement it. Those things don't come from these contracting packages in this city or in most cities. They come from, you know, complimentary funds and things like that. But I just want to make really clear that as a procurement requirement, I believe that could be in this ordinance. I believe it would be appropriate to be. We haven't had time to have a full conversation, and I get that. But I just, again, don't want anyone leaving thinking that that this kind of a requirement is one about the city paying for a program. This is not about a program. This is about a way of doing business that integrates training. And so I hope that we do continue the conversation. We could always potentially amend this ordinance if we are able to figure out the best way to do that. But I think it is it is linked into this to the themes in this package in many of the same ways that speakers talked about the projects and the way that the projects and the people come together. The last thing I just want to say about why I'm so supportive of this project tonight, and I think it's important for us to remind folks when we go out and talk to them is that this bond package is made possible with our existing property tax mills. And so it does not represent us needing to bring out or charge people additional mills to pay for this bond package. I think that's a really important message and one that I think is an important way, that this is a balanced approach with paying for things, but with existing property tax mills that we have. So with that will be enthusiastically supporting it and continuing to work on the things that didn't make the list like housing. Thanks. That's right. Thank you. Councilman. Can each Councilman Lopez. I see you're up, but go to Councilman Cashman. So you can. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll repeat some of what you've heard from some of my colleagues about what I wanted to say. Mainly, as I remember, maybe it was a month, six, six weeks or so ago, sitting with Evan Dreyer and talking about the the bond package and telling them that at that point I was a no vote that I expected to get to. Yes, but it was just that point in the process where the stew wasn't wasn't cooked enough. And and I knew there was room for movement in the process and and move the administration moved. They didn't blink. And they held the line on certain elements that they felt very strongly about. But on other areas that were important to me, there was movement not just in my district but in other districts around the city. So I sit here today. A yes vote, an enthusiastic yes vote. And if I were to have been the only one to have been asked to put this bond package together, it would look somewhat different. I think any one of us would write a slightly different package. But there is so much good in this. And you know the old thing about not letting perfection interfere with the good and. So much of so many of the projects in here are jumping off points that if we don't move forward with them, they're nice starts, but they're not getting us where we want to go. You know, the project that I talk about a lot, you know, our sidewalk infrastructure, we need hundreds of millions of dollars over the next couple of decades. Okay. But as I've said before, the money that's in this package we talk about, I think the figure is about 30.7 million, which is a wonderful jumping off point. But that is only one section of this bond that's dealing with pedestrian infrastructure, I think. Birthday girl Sussman down on the way here talks a lot about the the Colfax corridor dollars, a lot of which are going to go towards, uh, pedestrian infrastructure improvements for miles along that corridor. And there's other elements doing the same thing, the bicycle money. We need a whole lot more of that. Most of the arts and culture facilities, their wish list was for considerably more than they got, you know. So they're going to have to continue to go to their donor base and to push in the annual budgets. I just I think it's a great thing that we have an opportunity to do for the city. Hundreds of great projects. My district is getting improvements to several rec rec centers, new playgrounds, great improvements along the Buchtel corridor, fire stations and so on and so forth. So I'm glad to approve this tonight, and I will look forward to supporting the Lopez Espinosa's amendment as well. All right, Councilman Lopez, I got Councilwoman Gilmore. Councilwoman Gilmore. Thank you, President Brooks. I will echo my colleagues in saying thank you very much to the city staff and really taking us through the entire process. And I want to thank my council colleagues. We, I think, took a really different look at what we were going to prioritize and equity continued to be at the forefront. It never left as far as the conversation went. And this really allowed us to, as a council, see the different issues that each one of our districts are facing. And, you know, in the last year we did a lot of council tours. And so having the majority of city council on a bus driving down 56th Avenue really was able to show them what we face as a community. And they delved in deep. They wanted to understand what the issues were. They wanted to hear from myself, but most importantly, folks who actually live and deal with the issues on a day to day basis. And really through this process, you know, we talk a lot about unintended consequences or unintended outcomes. And sometimes those are bad. And unintended outcome of this entire process was that we were able to really hear from the folks of Denver. This was a process where the community, residents of District 11, we bonded together over advocating for the important projects that we now have on the bond package. And that was an amazing process because for so long the equity issues that we had faced easily can tear our community apart. And we were able to utilize this process and really bond together and do great things for District 11 and for all the council districts and the rest of the city. So first and foremost, I want to thank the constituents, the regular community members who show up, who stay here late and really advocated for these these projects and then my council colleagues for your support and the city agencies. Thank you, President Brooks. Yeah, thank you, Councilwoman Gilmore. Councilman Lopez. I forgot. I absolutely forgot. And. We can't. We can't, I think the mayor enough for setting the tone. And I wanted to make sure I had that in my comments. But I think, you know, I think the mayor getting out there and really and really championing and championing. Equity and. And the equity studies that were done and a lot of the work, you know, he and I were out Paco Sanchez Park just with the sign and we had a groundbreaking that had nothing to do with the barn yet. But the rest of it's funded through the bond. I mean, both looked at each other and I didn't know whether it was okay to start campaigning for it or not. So I you know, I decided not to. But but at the end of the day, he. He deserves a lot of credit. This takes a councilman to know. Right. And deliver to the districts. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Lopez, I'll just make a couple of comments. I think my my colleagues made some really great comments and thanked a lot of people who've made this be one of the most inclusive, transparent bond projects of all time. And I'm so grateful and honored to be a part of it. And the fact that we have a room that is half full on a $937,000,000 billion bond is crazy. And that's me. That means the process was right. I also want to thank Roxann White, J.J. Newman and Jen Dale for being part of the chairs of this volunteer led committees that got yelled at and got e-mails because of the work that they've done. And so thank you, guys. It's incredible. And obviously the staff has just been amazing as well. I guess I'll just say this. Anytime you have capital like this, it's an opportunity and you have to have a strategic vision or else everybody gets crumbs and you sprinkle it. And I just think we had a strategic vision and it was a great process. But people are going to be upset when the strategic, strategic vision because that means is directed towards one big issue and the transportation mobility was our issue for this year. And being a housing champion myself, it was very hard to say we're going to prioritize this because we have a finite amount of resources and every year we got to figure out what to do with those resources. And so I want to echo some of the comments that I think, Councilman, you made as well. 2018 is around the corner and there will be another strategic focus for this city and there will be other hard choices. And so I appreciate everybody realizing what it takes to lead and having a macro perspective for the entire city, not just your neighborhood, not just your council district, but what it takes to move this city forward . So I am. Excited to support this. And I have to say, our mayor, the point in which he got the budget from the executive committee, there are a lot of people upset and I didn't know how we were going to move forward because we had about five or six council members upset and about a thousand people in the public who felt like they their project should have been included. And Michael B Hancock did not sweat and was just open and invited Councilman Clark and I to the table. And we have watched you. We have the product of that before you today. So hats off to the mayor. Thank you. All right, Madam Secretary, we are talking about 812. We have seven bills to go. I assure you, we will not talk like this on other bills. But it's been moved and seconded by Secretary Roll. Mr. President, is this were voting just on 812 now. Just on 812. Black. All right. Brooks. I'm sorry. Clark. Hi. Espinosa. Hi. Flynn. Gilmore. Herndon. Cashman. I can eat, I. Lopez. I knew. Ortega, I Sussman. All right, Mr. President. I please. Because I've already announced results. 13 days. 13 ays Council Bill 812 has passed. All right, Councilwoman Gilmore, will you please put Council Bill 813 on the floor?