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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - Full - Legislative Review Committee - 10/09/2017 - City Manager’s Office City Hall 300 LaPorte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com Legislative Review Committee Agenda October 9, 2017 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Commons Conference Room, City Hall, 300 LaPorte Ave., Building A 1. Agenda Review (2 minutes) 2. Approval of minutes from September 25, 2017 Meeting (3 minutes) Attached: September 25th Minutes 3. September 27-29 lobbying trip highlights (10 minutes) 4. Review of draft Legislative Policy Agenda and State Priorities changes (25 minutes) Attached: Draft Policy Agenda (redline and clean versions) and State Priorities 5. Review CML Policy Action Info Items-Attached (10 minutes) 6. Other business (10 minutes)  Meetings with State elected officials  Legislative Review Committee Meeting Minutes September 25, 2017 3:30 p.m. Commons Conference Room Councilmembers Present: Ken Summers, Ray Martinez, and Bob Overbeck Staff Present: Jeanne Sanford, Ginny Sawyer, Jeff Mihelich, Tyler Marr, Alyssa Johnson, Carrie Daggett, Adam Jokerst Others Present: Dan Betts The meeting came to order at 3:29 pm. Approval of Minutes LRC approved the minutes of the August 8th meeting unanimously. Update on agenda and talking points for September 27-29 lobbying trip  LRC discussed the agenda updates for the upcoming lobbying trip in Washington, D.C. Some of the updates include the addition of a meeting with the Corps of Engineers on Friday and meeting with HUD on Thursday.  An update was presented on the Halligan Water Project and how it can be addressed at a federal level. LRC agreed with the approach of asking the delegation for a letter of support. Initial thoughts and review of suggested Legislative Policy Agenda and Federal/State Priorities changes  Ginny and Tyler reviewed and edited the agenda for clarity purposes. The updated version with page numbers and corresponding table of contents will be provided to committee members.  Policy agenda suggestions from committee: o Add section on local elections and cybersecurity under state law. o Include red-line document in the next committee packet. o Review the phrase “and related infrastructure” from bullet 4 on page 6. (Ginny will check with Cassie on this phrase’s meaning.) o Create a category titled, “Public Health,” which will include a section on behavioral health separate from homelessness. All committee members expressed support for this suggestion.  LRC supported the idea to create separate state and federal legislative priority info sheets.  LPT item: tobacco retailer licensing o Support expressed for approach to request state to license tobacco retailers. Ginny will add this to state priorities under public health.  LRC discussed the reasoning for listing oil and gas on the state priority list and in the policy agenda statements. A second draft of priorities with increased clarification on oil and gas will be brought back to LRC to discuss.  Public health and oil and gas position under home-rule will be added to state priorities for LRC to review. CML ask to pass resolution in support of reauthorizing Colorado Lottery Division/Great Outdoor Colorado (GOCO)  LRC expressed support with GOCO. Bring resolution forward to Council for adoption. LRC supports GOCO.  Martinez made motion to support. Overbeck seconded. Approved unanimously. Other Business  Mayor suggested items: o Dream Coalition membership  This is a matter that is currently before Congress and could be placed in the legislative policy agenda if LRC wanted the City to take a position on it.  LRC concluded that Mayor Troxell can take a personal stance on it without expressed support from LRC. o Ask to have Mayor be coauthor of Op-Ed related to EV infrastructure  LRC concluded that the Mayor has discretion to write his own op-eds without direction from LRC or other formal venues.  LRC seeks clarification on the types of items that are presented under other business. Suggestion for the Mayor to bring these items up during other business at Council.  Martinez makes motion that mayor can write op-eds without direction from LRC. Overbeck seconded. Approved unanimously. Adjourned at 4:49 PM 2018 Legislative Policy Agenda Adopted November xx, 2017 Formatted: Centered 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ 2 Home Rule and Local Control ................................................................................................ 166 Affordable Housing ................................................................................................................ 176 Air Quality .............................................................................................................................. 187 Beer and Liquor ...................................................................................................................... 197 Broadband and Cable .............................................................................................................. 198 Climate .................................................................................................................................... 208 Development Review and Land Use Planning ....................................................................... 219 Elections .................................................................................................................................. 229 Energy ................................................................................................................................... 2210 Finance .................................................................................................................................. 2410 Hazardous Materials Management ....................................................................................... 2611 Human Resources ................................................................................................................. 2712 Marijuana ............................................................................................................................. 2812 Municipal Court .................................................................................................................... 2913 Oil and Gas ........................................................................................................................... 2913 Open records and data management ..................................................................................... 3014 Parks and Natural Areas........................................................................................................ 3114 Public Health ......................................................................................................................... 3115 Public safety .......................................................................................................................... 3215 Recycling and Solid Waste Reduction .................................................................................. 3416 Risk Management and Liability ............................................................................................ 3417 Transportation ....................................................................................................................... 3518 Urban renewal and Downtown Development ....................................................................... 3718 Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater .................................................................................... 3719 City of Fort Collins Legislative Contacts ............................................................................. 3921 Home Rule and Local Control ................................................................. 6 Affordable Housing .............................................................................. 6 Air Quality ........................................................................................ 7 Beer and Liquor ................................................................................. 7 Broadband and Cable ........................................................................... 8 Climate ........................................................................................... 8 Development Review and Land Use Planning ............................................... 9 Elections .......................................................................................... 9 Formatted: Heading 2, Centered Formatted: Normal Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS 3 Energy ............................................................................................ 9 Finance ......................................................................................... 10 Hazardous Materials Management .......................................................... 11 Homelessness .................................................................................. 11 Human Resources ............................................................................. 12 Marijuana ....................................................................................... 13 Municipal Court ................................................................................ 13 Oil and Gas ..................................................................................... 13 Open records and data management ....................................................... 14 Parks and Natural Areas ...................................................................... 14 Public safety ................................................................................... 15 Recycling and Solid Waste Reduction ...................................................... 16 Risk Management and Liability .............................................................. 17 Transportation ................................................................................. 17 Urban renewal and Downtown Development ............................................. 18 Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater ...................................................... 19 City of Fort Collins Legislative Contacts ................................................... 20 Home Rule and Local Control ................................................................. 6 Affordable Housing .............................................................................. 6 Air Quality ........................................................................................ 7 Beer and Liquor ................................................................................. 7 Broadband and Cable ........................................................................... 8 Climate ........................................................................................... 8 Development Review and Land Use Planning ............................................... 9 Elections .......................................................................................... 9 Energy ............................................................................................ 9 Finance ......................................................................................... 10 Hazardous Materials Management .......................................................... 11 Homelessness .................................................................................. 11 Human Resources ............................................................................. 12 Marijuana ....................................................................................... 13 Municipal Court ................................................................................ 13 Oil and Gas ..................................................................................... 13 Open records and data management ....................................................... 14 Parks and Natural Areas ...................................................................... 14 Public safety ................................................................................... 15 Recycling and Solid Waste Reduction ...................................................... 16 4 Risk Management and Liability .............................................................. 17 Transportation ................................................................................. 17 Urban renewal and Downtown Development ............................................. 18 Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater ...................................................... 19 2017 LEGISLATIVE POLICY AGENDA Adopted: November 15, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 FORT COLLINS LEGISLATIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE 4 LEGISLATIVE REVIEW PROCESS 4 2016 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES 5-12 LEGISLATIVE POLICY STATEMENTS 13-35 COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY 14-16 Formatted: Centered Formatted: Centered 5 AFFORDABLE HOUSING 13 DEVELOPMENT REVIEW AND INSPECTION 13 PLANNING AND LAND USE 14 SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY 14 URBAN AGRICULTURE 15 CULTURE AND RECREATION 17 CULTURAL SERVICES 17 PARKS AND RECREATION 17 ECONOMIC HEALTH 18-19 FINANCE 18 INVESTMENTS 18 PRIVATIZATION 19 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 19 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 20-25 AIR QUALITY 20 CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 21 NATURAL AREAS AND OPEN LANDS 21 OIL AND GAS 22 RECYCLING AND SOLID WASTE 23 UTILITY SERVICES 23 ENERGY 24 WATER SUPPLY AND QUALITY 25 HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT 26-28 HOME RULE 26 HUMAN RESOURCES 26 RISK MANAGEMENT 27 SOVEREIGN AND GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY 28 TELECOMMUNICATIONS 28 SAFETY 29-31 FIRE PROTECTION 29 HAZARDOUS MATERIALS MANAGEMENT 29 MARIJUANA 30 MUNICIPAL COURT 31 PUBLIC SAFETY 31 TRANSPORTATION 33 TRANSPORTATION 33 CITY LEGISLATIVE STAFF 35-36 6 INTRODUCTION Fort Collins is a community of 161,000 residents.residents located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains along Colorado’s Front Range. Incorporated in 1873, the City has grown to become the commercial, educational and cultural hub of Northern Colorado. The City adopted a home rule charter in 1954 and operates under a Council-Manager form of government. The City is a data-driven municipal organization that strives to fulfill its mission, “Exceptional service for an exceptional community”, through a vision of providing world-class municipal services through operational excellence and a culture of innovation. City leaders seek innovative solutions to issues facing the community and are often willing to leverage emerging technologies. The Fort Collins City Council annually adoptsadopts a Legislative Priorities and a Legislative Policy Agenda ahead of the upcoming Colorado general Assembly session for the purpose of guiding legislators and staff in supporting community goals.  The City’s Legislative Priorities are broad issues Fort Collins is focused on during the Colorado General Assembly and United States Congress sessions. The Priorities may carry over year to year since they are larger, more challenging issues that may take multi-year work to influence.  The Policy Agenda is broad set of policy statements meant to convey positions on issues that affect the quality of life and the governance of our community. It is structured to address areas of local concern and to also reflect the strategic planning that guides City of Fort Collins organizational resource allocation and decision making. On many federal and state issues, Fort Collins shares the concerns of others within the region and statewide. In these cases, Fort Collins welcomes will seek opportunities to work in partnership to leverage additional resources and participate in regional dialogue to achieve shared outcomes. The City has identified seven outcome areas to ensure appropriate and effective resource allocation supporting the community’s priorities. Outcome areas include Culture and Recreation; Economic Health; Environmental Health; High Performing Government; Neighborhood Livability and Social Health; Safe Community; and Transportation and Mobility. The Policy Agenda identifies specific City Council- adopted goals associated with the policy statements. tThis alignment as it is important for City staff to ensure that advocacy supports specific desired outcomes. 7 CITY OF FORT COLLINS LEGISLATIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE The Legislative Review Committee (LRC) is a representative group of Council members that reviews and reacts to proposed legislation on behalf of City Council and the City. In taking a position on particular bills, the LRC interprets and applies the various policies that are included in the Legislative Policy Agenda. Council Members presently serving on the Legislative Review Committee are:  Councilmember Gino CampanaKen Summers  Councilmember Ross CunniffBob Overbeck  Councilmember Ray Martinez LEGISLATIVE REVIEW PROCESS Bills introduced in the Colorado General Assembly, United States Congress and federal, state or county regulations or rulemakings are reviewed by City staff or the City’s contract lobbyist. Bills, regulations and rules addressing a stated legislative prioritythat are identified as having a potential impact on the City, or adopted policy position, may will be brought to the LRC for discussion. of an official City position. OnceIf LRC adopts a position, is adopted on a bill, staff and/or lobbyists conveys will convey that information to the appropriate state or federal representative and advocates for the City’s adopted position. Due to the timelytime-sensitive nature of the General Assembly, if a bill’s subject matter is explicitly addressed in this Policy Agenda, staff will proactively work with state and federal representatives to advance the City’s position as expressed in this legislative policy agenda and other Council-adopted plans and policies, while updating the LRC until such time that LRC may take a position. Staff liaisons support the LRC by contributing expertise in various areas of municipal service. The City Attorney’s Office also reviews selected bills and may provide confidential legal analysis. The input offered by staff experts and the City’s attorneys is invaluable in analyzing impacts of legislative, regulatory and rulemaking proposals to Fort Collins operations and the community. Fort Collins also works with community partners to support local projects and staff collaborates with representatives of other municipalities on mutually-held priorities. Fort Collins actively seeks innovative partnerships to leverage positive outcomes for residents. The City works closely with the Colorado Municipal League (CML) and the National League of Cities (NLC) on many legislative items facing cities. Fort Collins also works maintains membership with Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities (CAMU) which represents 29 municipal utilities throughout the state on utility issues, Colorado Communities for Climate Action (CC4CA) which represents municipalities on climate issues. In addition, Fort Collins actively participates in the Colorado Water Congress State Affairs Committee to address water-related issuesvarious trade organizations which represent specific areas of interest to City operations. 8 In 20187, Fort Collins will contract a state lobbyist to :  Bbe partneringpartner again with Bowditch and Cassell to maintain a fulltime presence at the state capitaol.  Advise City staff and leaders on relevant bills  Assist staff who may be testifying in Denver  Provide frequent updates to the LRC during the session Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering 9 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES Objective: Cooperate with stakeholders on refinement of Urban Renewal Authority laws Issue: An Urban Renewal Authority (URA) is a tool in place to identify and revitalize areas of the city deemed blighted and provide a funding mechanism to encourage redevelopment. The main funding tool for URA is Tax Increment Financing (TIF) generated through property taxes. In its best intention, urban renewal restores economic vitality and improves the safety of a designated area. Redeveloping urban areas is much harder and more expensive than new development in “greenfield sites”, thus the use of urban renewal and tax increment financing responds to larger, more costly infrastructure needs. The state of Colorado has empowered local authorities to use Urban Renewal Authorities to encourage revitalization and the elimination of blight in these areas. Fort Collins attempts to use URA and TIF judiciously but also recognizes the concerns raised by counties, special districts and school districts about the use of TIF. URA is an important and useful tool for Fort Collins in addressing community blight and encouraging redevelopment rather than sprawl. The City has engaged regional partners in an attempt to develop an equitable process for utilizing URA in Larimer County. Fort Collins has sought to identify a mechanism to balance Larimer County costs for providing service in URA areas and to shared constituents. 2015 URA reform law (HB15-1348) instituted several changes that the City will be implementing in its URA practices. Key changes to URA law add additional members from county, special districts and school district to a URA Board and a negotiated use of tax increment funds before the City could utilize them. Fort Collins is already working on adopting HB 1348 changes. The General Assembly made clarifications to HB 1348 with SB16-177. The remaining major issue of concern to Fort Collins in the implementation of HB 1348 is the applicability to URA projects and clarifying the impacts on existing versus prospective projects. The City would like to see clarifications made to HB 1348 as language included in the new law is unclear on when the law applies to existing activities and assistance. The City also seeks to ensure development authorities do not become subject to similar regulations. Objective: Support local control of oil and gas operations Issue: Fort Collins, like many other Colorado communities, has taken steps to address oil and gas extraction. Those efforts have been limited by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) rules. Fort Collins supports studying and better understanding and mitigating the health and community impacts of oil and gas extraction. PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Centered 10 Fort Collins seeks the following:  Increased local flexibility to regulate oil and gas activity within its incorporated borders  Limiting the proximity of large-scale oil and gas sites to the City limits in order to minimize community impacts  Mitigation measures that balance developing oil and gas resources with community environmental and human health  Additional information about the chemicals being injected into the ground, especially during hydraulic fracturing  Greater knowledge and control of air emissions from extraction processes and production equipment; including air emissions transported from outside of our community  Enhanced right for communities to regulate oil and gas as an industrial practice and therefore apply local zoning practices to operators  Better balance between surface land ownership and mineral right ownership Fort Collins intends to use existing programs like the Local Government Designee (LGD) to their fullest potential but will also seek legislative remedies to areas of greatest concern. Fort Collins will also work with other interested communities to address oil and gas operation concerns. The City will monitor and engage as appropriate in rulemaking hearings of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Objective: Advocate solutions to nuisance and safety issues related to railroad proximity Issue: Communities throughout the United States are wrestling with issues related to railroad proximity. These include extended blockages of community intersections, the transport of hazardous materials, rail car safety, train horn noise, transparency related to rail cargo and train switching. These issues affect quality of life for residents and business owners and can result in catastrophic disasters in cases of derailment. Fort Collins has two active railroad corridors and three rail companies servicing the community and is working regionally, through the Colorado Municipal League (CML) and National League of Cities (NLC), to raise the profile of rail proximity issues. In addressing rail safety and rail proximity issues, the City has active relationships with Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Great Western Railway (GWR) and Union Pacific (UP) railroad companies and has cultivated a relationship with the federal regulatory body – the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). In order to foster cleaner air, reduce auto congestion and improve quality of life, several federal agencies including the EPA, HUD and the Federal Transit Administration are encouraging Transit Oriented Development. The idea behind Transit Oriented Development is to bring residents closer to mass transit lines so that they can use mass transportation, and so that downtown revitalization can occur. The Mason Corridor Bus Rapid Transit, which began operation in 2014, is one example. At the same time, the FRA train horn rule in effect is discouraging PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Normal, Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Add space between paragraphs of the same style, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Centered 11 the development community and residents from locating around transit. Reform is needed. Trains have regained preference for transporting goods and materials. The increased use of rail has added pressure to the system and identified several safety concerns – track maintenance, tanker car safety, and notification of hazardous materials to public safety leaders. Fort Collins will work to the following goals at a state and national level:  Engagement with railroad companies  Development of a “proximity issues” dialogue between railroad and local governments on a broad suite of topics  Notification about hazardous material shipments passing through communities  Ensuring track maintenance and train car safety  Collaboration with railroads to train local emergency personnel  Solution-oriented use of technology and innovation to improve conflict areas  Promote improve existing federal and state regulations to identify reasonable safety protections Objective: Support marijuana law clarifications and alignment with Colorado Constitution Issue: The passage and implementation of Amendment 64 legalized adult use marijuana in Colorado. The Fort Collins City Council approved limited adult use marijuana businesses and sales in addition to existing medical marijuana businesses. Fort Collins seeks clarification on the following items:  Conflicts that exist between state and federal laws regarding marijuana possession  Enforcement of the new law and its impacts on local staff and public safety resources  Rules pertaining to packaging and labeling marijuana and products containing marijuana  Effectively funding prevention of under-21 possession and use  Community public safety  Limiting THC content per serving size and restricting packaging to a single serving In addition to adult use marijuana, communities across the United States that have authorized medical marijuana are struggling with implementation and the need for a single, viable distribution system. At the core of the issues with both medical and adult use marijuana is the classification of the drug. Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule 1 drug. This designation means it cannot be prescribed by a doctor or handled through the same distribution channels as other prescribed drugs. As a result, different states have adopted different approaches in conflict with federal laws. In Colorado, medical marijuana may be recommended by a doctor but not prescribed. Work is needed at the federal level to clarify this issue. The federal classification should be re-evaluated to consider allowing more medical research. If it is determined that marijuana fits one of the other PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered Formatted: Normal, Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Add space between paragraphs of the same style, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered 12 classifications and does have medical benefits, it could be included in the existing drug delivery system. Objective: Participate in federal, state and regional efforts to foster resilient communities and achieve Climate Action Plan goals Issue: Making communities more resilient to disaster and the effects of a changing climate has become more important to Colorado communities over the last several years as natural disasters have caused significant human and property loss. Resilience has become a term used to describe hardening vulnerable community infrastructure and preparing for predictable hazards in order to soften the blow on citizens and infrastructure. Making Fort Collins and Northern Colorado more resilient involves providing decision-makers hazard mitigation analysis and scientific data, then using that information to invest in complementary systems. Northern Colorado’s experience is that resilience must be a regional effort that pays off through coordinated advanced planning and investment. Resiliency efforts are important because they impact a broad set of critical services including:  Land use  Utility operations  Transportation infrastructure  Sustainability services  Health  Safety  Emergency Response  Disaster recovery Fort Collins adopted aggressive emission reduction goals. The City supports policies and legislation helping communities to achieve these goals, gather scientific data supporting the goal and investing in needed infrastructure to ensure a clean energy future. City staff are working to develop actions to implement in order to achieve the Climate Action Plan goals. These goals may be assisted and promoted through legislative and regulatory actions. Success in achieving the City’s goals may be enhanced through partnership with communities that have adopted similarly aggressive climate action and adaptation goals. The City is partnering with 12 other Colorado communities via Colorado Communities for Climate Action (CC4CA) to advocate for these efforts at a state and federal level. Action in the transportation and energy sectors will be important drivers for reducing emissions and achieving both the Climate Action Plan and resilience goals. The Legislative Review Committee will track actions of PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Centered Formatted: Centered, Tab stops: Not at 2.74" Formatted: Centered Formatted: Normal, Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Add space between paragraphs of the same style, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Centered 13 this group throughout the legislative session and make recommendations of support as appropriate The Fort Collins community is just one member of a regional “waste shed” in Northern Colorado. The City acknowledges this interdependence, and the role that state legislation can, and should, play in applying broad measures such as setting a state waste diversion goal and helping to support related strategies, which could also serve to reduce carbon emissions and create opportunities for waste-to- energy applications when ultra-low pollution conversion technology is used. Objective: Support transportation infrastructure connectivity with an emphasis on funding an integrated, multi-modal system Issue: Funding for vital transportation infrastructure will continue to be a high priority for the City of Fort Collins. Transportation infrastructure is a critical element to supporting community and regional economic health, safety and quality of life. The City supports Congress’s recent long-term reauthorization of the nation’s surface transportation law with a focus on transit, livable community planning, comprehensive regional investments, revitalization of existing infrastructure, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and approaches that decrease petroleum consumption and reduce carbon pollution. We strongly support preservation or increase of federal levels of funding and allocation of all federal motor fuel taxes and other federal transportation trust funds for their intended purposes. In addition, we urge development of a new, more stable, long range transportation funding mechanism that doesn’t rely upon fuel tax revenues. Fuel tax is no longer a sustainable method of funding the nation’s transportation infrastructure needs. . If there is no way to raise/index the fuel tax to reflect current economic realities, then new funding mechanisms become critically important. Fort Collins seeks a solution to secure critical funding of the nation’s highway and bridge projects. Allowing the Highway Trust Fund to become insolvent would be devastating to the City’s transportation infrastructure and have impacts throughout the Northern Colorado economy. A key transportation funding priority for Fort Collins is Interstate 25 (I-25) in Northern Colorado. The highway has become a pinch point in the regional transportation inventory that limits access to and from Fort Collins for residents, visitors, and the delivery of goods and services. Immediate funding to widen north I-25 is needed to sustain the region’s economic growth. The City is an active part of the I-25 Coalition whose primary goal is to accelerate construction of a third lane in each direction of I-25 as identified in the I-25 North Project (from State Highway 6 to State Highway 14). Colorado Department of Transportation recently received $15 million in TIGER grant funding for I-25 improvements. This, in combination with $25 million in local PR I O R I T I E S 14 match commitments and private sector funds, as well as other scheduled funds for improvements, have accelerated improvements in Northern Colorado by fifteen years. Improvements include a third, managed (toll) lane in each direction plus three bridge improvements and regional bicycle trail connections and are scheduled to be completed in 2020. Improvements will be between SH-14 and SH- 402. While these are critical improvements for Fort Collins and Northern Colorado, sizeable funding gaps remain in terms of needed I-25 improvements between SH- 402 and SH-66. Actions that may expedite the continued improvement and expansion of northern sections of I-25 include:  A Transportation Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANS) bond II ballot initiative (TRANS bonds were previously used to help fund the $1.67 billion T-REX I-25 improvements in the south Denver Metro area)  State of Colorado General Fund dollars going to transportation (maintenance & capital construction)  Tax credit legislation for specific highway projects Objective: Support comprehensive water resource management Issue: Water resources in Colorado and throughout the West are stressed by many factors – environmental, population growth and aging infrastructure. Local water resource planning efforts ensure adequate supply to residents through managing the City’s water rights portfolio, encouraging increased efficiency and expanding storage. Fort Collins will support efforts to address local and regional water needs, preserve its water rights portfolio, and to encourage conservation of water resources based on the 2016 adoption of the Water Efficiency Plan. The conservation of water resources extends to support for Cache la Poudre River restoration projects. Fort Collins will participate in implementation of the Colorado Water Plan by the Legislature and any State agencies, rulemakings by water-related State agencies (such as, by way of example, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the Colorado Water Conservation Board), and the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ and Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rulemakings affecting water storage, use, quality and conservation. Objective: Support a comprehensive approach to reduce the impacts of poverty and housing affordability Issue: Poverty and lack of affordable housing are persistent issues in Fort Collins and across Colorado. The City is interested in developing local solutions to these persistent problems through collaboration and innovation. The City plays both a convening and leadership role among the many community service providers – PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Centered Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Centered 15 seeking to foster sustainable solutions to complex social issues through a combination of City involvement and leadership. Fort Collins supports solutions to address poverty within the community such as:  Fully resource a state affordable housing fund  Implement funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit  Develop or expand programs that ensure a smooth transition from foster care to independence  Increase funding for mental health care/programs  Increase development of condominiums by addressing construction defect law reform  Pilot innovative programs to address housing Objective: Support Efforts to Address both Homelessness and Resource Resistant Populations Issue: Homelessness and transient populations are persistent challenges in Fort Collins and other communities. Fort Collins works to address homelessness through partnering and supporting many community service providers and has a goal of making homelessness rare, short-lived, and non-recurring. The resource resistant populations are those that occupy public spaces and are not interested in housing or other community services offered. In this arena, the City supports efforts to address public safety concerns, enforce existing local laws, and maintain a welcoming environment for all. The City opposes efforts to undermine local control or enforcement of activities on public property. Objective: Support the innovation economy Issue: Innovation is a key attribute of the City organization and is also important to the community. Fort Collins has numerous drivers of innovation, intellectual property and inventions with an educated resident base, Colorado State University, federal research labs, and a long list of innovative companies. As a result, Fort Collins has a culture and support system that nurtures an innovation economy with the City often serving as a living laboratory for ideas and new technologies. The City will maintain and enhance its innovation economy through:  Supporting efforts to simplify the commercialization of intellectual property  Efforts to increase the available capital to support innovation and new business formation  Efforts that support the spin-off and development of intellectual property from research institutes, private business, and higher education PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Centered, Line spacing: single Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Line spacing: single, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Centered, Line spacing: single Formatted: Centered Formatted: Centered, Line spacing: single Formatted: Normal, Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Add space between paragraphs of the same style, Line spacing: single, No bullets or numbering 16  Efforts to encourage the retention of new and innovative businesses in the community  Supporting business incubation, primarily through the commercialization of intellectual property, with strong partnerships  Application of innovative technologies and approaches to improve City programs and services 2018 LEGISLATIVE POLICY STATEMENTS HOME RULE AND LOCAL CONTROL PR I O R I T I E S Formatted: Centered, Adjust space between Latin and Asian text, Adjust space between Asian text and numbers Formatted: Centered, Indent: Left: 0.25", Adjust space between Latin and Asian text, Adjust space between Asian text and numbers Formatted: Centered, Adjust space between Latin and Asian text, Adjust space between Asian text and numbers Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Italic 17 In order to consider and manage local conditions and desires, community issues and needs should be addressed locally. For this reason, The City of Fort Collins is a home rule municipality. hHome rule authority is of utmost importance to the City of Fort Collins. , and affords the citizens of Fort Collins greater access to government and increased opportunity for participation and contribution to the decision-making process. In addition, many policy matters are best left to local determination and control, and the benefits of allowing for local control are sometimes overlooked in discussions at the state and federal level. The City recognizes, however, that there are particular areas in which insistence on local control may be untimely or unwise. Therefore, proposed legislation must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine when it is in the City's best interest to assert home rule authority or argue in support of local control, and when the City should support statewide intervention. The City must be free to regulate local activities that primarily impact the area within the City's boundaries, such as the speed of local traffic or the effects of particular land use developments. The City also understands the accumulative effect of these and other activities have statewide ramifications that may call for statewide regulation, to effectively manage such things as overall growth and development in the state, traffic congestion in major transportation corridors and environmental quality. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Supports Sstrengthening and preservinge home rule authority of municipal governments.. 2. Opposes State or Federal intervention in matters of local concern or matters that unnecessarily or adversely affect the City’s ability to manage and operate pursuant to its home rule authority. 3. Opposes changes that increase (and support changes that lessen) the burdens on municipalities associated with public or other government records, establishment of ethics standards and procedures, operation of municipal courts, and other matters of municipal operations or authority. 4. Supports Eenablinge cities to choose the provision of services through private enterprise in a manner that fosters cost effective, sustainable, quality services. 5. MaintainSupports local control of the awarding of contracts and the accountability of local officials for those actions. 6. Opposes mandates that increase the complexity and cost of services without improving those services. 3. AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH AF F O R D A B L E H O U S I N G HO M E R U L E HU M A N R E S O U R C E S Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.31", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: 0.38", List tab Formatted: No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2 Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline 18 The City recognizes that the affordability and availability of decent housing is critical to a vibrant and diverse community. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports maintaining or enhancing current levels of funding for affordable housing throughout Colorado, including expanding the State Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. 2. Supports increasing local government’s ability to regulate, manage or generate alternative sources of funding for affordable housing, including public-private partnerships. 3. Protect the rights of low-income and/or disabled residents in tenant-landlord disputes, especially as it relates to safety issues. 4.3. Supports Astronger amendments to construction defect laws to reasonably balance safe and reliable housing with needed condominium construction. promote the construction of owner occupied-attached housing. 5.4. Increase the amount of affordable, accessible, sustainable and high-quality housing in communities.Supports creating an adequate supply of housing for all income levels and continued public and private sector support for these efforts. 6. Develop strategies that balance the cost of services provided to the chronically homeless with the cost of providing permanent supportive housing. 7. Create a standardized statewide approach to addressing homelessness. 8. Invest in innovative approaches to address the causes of homelessness. AIR QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The City’s Air Quality Plan establishes a strong overall goal to “continually improve Fort Collins air quality.” Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements:: 1. AdoptSupports programs and policies that improve public health and air quality, and support rapid attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards, including ozone. 2. Enhance Supports local government authority to improve air quality beyond minimum State or Federal requirements. 3. Promote strategies to improve regional air quality, recognizing that air pollution does not follow jurisdictional boundaries. DE V E L O P M E N T R E V I E W AI R Q U A L I T Y Formatted: Not Strikethrough Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Highlight Formatted: Indent: Left: -0.25", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: -0.25", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: -0.25", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline 19 4. Assure that Federal, State and County agencies have adequate authority and resources (funding and personnelSupports )adequate authority and resource at all levels of government to enforce air quality regulations. 3. 5. Reduce vehicle emissions by:  Employing Supports economic incentives, disincentives and other market approaches that support clean airpromote lower emissions, and fewer carbon- based fuels. and related infrastructure.  Encouraging or promoting lower emissions and lower carbon fuels, vehicles and supporting infrastructure  Supporting state motor vehicle emissions testing programs consistent with City air quality goals 4. 6. Supports sStrengthening standards for tailpipe emissions, aggregate vehicle emissions and/or fuel economy for all vehicles. including and nitrous oxide emissions. 5. Supports programs and policies that promote the use of electric vehicles and the development of infrastructure needed to support the use of those vehicles. BEER AND LIQUOR SAFE COMMUNITY The City issues and renews liquor licenses, enforces license rules, and holds hearings for liquor license violations. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports clarifying the qualifications for what types and purposes a business may obtain and use a state liquor license. 2. Supports definition of a “meal” when calculating the percentage of meals served for a liquor license. TELECOMMUNICATIONSBROADBAND AND CABLE ECONOMIC HEALTH The City of Fort Collins encourages a competitive, open market for cable and telecommunications services in order to ensure the public has access to a variety of programming and services at the lowest cost possible. Reliable, high-speed, and affordable access to broadband and cable programming throughout the community remains a priority and a long-term goal for the City to ensure our economic vitality and allow for equal access for all residents and businesses. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statement:: Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.25", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.25", List tab + Not at 0.5" + 1" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.25", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: 0.25", List tab + Not at 0.5" + 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.25", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Font: Not Italic Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Not Bold, No underline, Not Small caps Formatted: Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline 20 1. Supports Mmaintaining and enhance local franchising authority to preserve local governments’ ability to negotiate in the public interest for cable channel space, institutional networks and public education and government programming. 2. Permit Supports allowing communities to offer and/or partner to offer high speed internet, Wi-Fi and other enhanced telecommunication services to residents, schools, academic institutions and businesses. 3. Allow Opposes restrictions on municipalities to providinge telecommunication services within City-owned facilities and on City property. 4. Opposes infringement on municipalities’ ability to compete in the broadband marketplace. 3.5. Opposes right of way use contrary to existing aesthetic policies and practices, including the addition of any above ground cabling. CLIMATE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Making communities more resilient to disaster and the effects of a changing climate has become more important to Colorado communities over the last several years as natural disasters have caused significant human and property loss. Fort Collins has adopted aggressive emission reduction goals and supports policies and legislation helping communities and the state to achieve these goals and enhance the environment as detailed in the Climate Action Plan. The City of Fort Collins encourages local, state and national efforts to protect and enhance our environment. Additionally, the City has a policy goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and 100 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. The goals call for Fort Collins to be carbon neutral by 2050. Therefore the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Enhance Fort Collins’ resilience to impacts of climate change. © 2. Establish greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets at all levels of government. Establish market-based mechanisms to reduce emissions. 3. Maintain and protect the Colorado self-audit law. 1. Supports reductions of the community’s GHG emissions from energy use in accordance with the Climate Action Plan (CAP) Framework (March 2015) – the current community GHG goals are a reduction of 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, 80 percent by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2050. TE L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S CL I M A T E A N D E N V P R O T E C T I O N Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: 0.63", Left + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Tab stops: 0.63", Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: 0.63", Left + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Font color: Auto Formatted: Tab stops: 0.63", Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: 0.63", Left + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: 0.63", Left + Not at 0.75" Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Tab stops: 0.63", Left 21 2. Supports rReducinge the emission of criteria pollutants 1. Supports greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, planning, and implementation at all levels of government. Supports market-based mechanisms to reduce emissions, including incentives, enabling legislation, and other mechanisms to achieve emissions reductions and increase resiliency in energy, waste reduction, transportation, and water sectors. 2. 3. Supports protection of the Colorado self-audit law. 4. Supports reducing the emission of criteria pollutants. DEVELOPMENT REVIEW AND INSPECTIONLAND USE PLANNING ECONOMIC HEALTH, NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH Fort Collins City Council adopts a land use code, zoning and new and existing property inspection protocol. The City supports retention of home-rule control in aligning development review and inspections with local priorities. In recent sessions, state legislators have introduced measures aimed at having local inspectors provide inspection for building types outside existing responsibilities without additional resources provided to conduct this work.has a well-established development review process, land use and building code; all of which align with local priorities. Therefore, the City: supports the following policy statements: 1. Supports Ffinancially compensatione a jurisdiction or agency for additional work of inspectors through fees or other means. 2. Give local governments choices in acceptingOpposes additional mandated inspection work. 3. Allow Supports local governmentsgovernments’ authority to determine the time needed to conduct development review and inspection timelines. 4. Encourages regional cooperation in land use and transportation planning, and foster sustainable development. 5. Supports prohibition to the annexation of land that is located within the boundaries of a Growth Management Area that was legally established by an intergovernmental agreement between a municipality and a county by any municipality not a party to the agreement. 6. Supports municipal discretion concerning the imposition of development fees and requirements. Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: 0.63", Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: 0.63", Left Formatted: Font color: Auto Formatted: Font color: Auto Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: 0.63", Left Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Font color: Auto, Border: : (No border) Formatted: Font color: Auto, Border: : (No border) Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Font color: Auto, Border: : (No border) Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: List Paragraph, Left, Indent: Left: 0.75" Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Left Formatted: Heading 2, Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" + 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" + 0.75" Formatted ... 22 3. PLANNING AND LAND USE Effective local land use planning and land development regulation contributes to the quality of life enjoyed primarily by Fort Collins residents, yet shared regionally within Larimer County. State legislation can influence local governments’ ability to develop and implement land use plans for their communities. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Require regional cooperation in land use and transportation planning, and foster sustainable development, without unduly constraining the City’s home rule powers. 2. Prohibit the annexation of land that is located within the boundaries of a Growth Management Area that was legally established by an intergovernmental agreement between a municipality and a county by any municipality not a party to the agreement. 3. Limit the definition of a compensable taking and/or the definition of vested property rights beyond the provisions of existing law. 4. Retain local government authority to impose development impact fees. 5. Increase cities’ ability to regulate industrial land uses like oil and gas exploration and extraction. 6. Foster equitable public housing policies that balance protection of tenants and landlords. ELECTIONS HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City of Fort Collins conducts municipal elections in April of odd years and special elections upon initiative referrals. The City is committed to conducting a clear, leagal, and trustworthy elections process. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports 2. Supports 3. Opposes ENERGY ECONOMIC HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH LA N D U S E SO C I A L S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Font color: Black, Not Small caps, Border: : (No border) Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Not Bold, No underline, Font color: Black, Not Small caps, Border: : (No border) Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Not Small caps Formatted: Font: 14 pt Formatted: Font: 14 pt, Not Bold, Italic, No underline 23 As a municipally-owned electric utility, the City is committed to providing affordable, reliable, and clean energy services to residents and businesses, as detailed in the Energy Policy. . Therefore, the City: 3. Maintain or improve the reliability of energy delivery 4. Promote Supports all efforts that promote energy affordability, and safety, and reductions in fossil-fuel generated consumption for residents, businesses and institutions 1. 5. Reduce Supports reductions in the environmental damage caused by energy extraction and production. 6. Leverage the role of Fort Collins Utilities Light & Power as the community’s municipally owned utility. 2. 7. Retain more of our community’s energy expenditures in the local economy. 8.3. Supports opportunities for Foster local economic opportunity in energy efficiency, production, and operation in local economies.. 9.4. Leverage opportunities toOpposes barriers to coordinatinge integrated planning for energy and water supply and demands. 10. Increase ourSupports state and federal funding for community’s resilience efforts to mitigate potential energy and climate related disruptions. 11. Maintain compliance with and leverage the potential benefits of local, regional, state and national regulatory frameworks, which impact energy production and use (e.g., carbon, fuel standards, ozone). 5. 12. Make Fort Collins an energy leader that can serve as a model for other communities. 13.6. Incent Supports federal and state incentives for renewable energy production, including wind power, and provide for “State Implementation Plan” credits for renewable energy (excluding residential wood burning and corn-based ethanol) and energy efficiency. 14.7. Opposes attempts to prevent or inhibit provision of municipal electric service in newly annexed areas. EN E R G Y Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: -0.25" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Comment [TM1]: Explore if still wanted 24 15.8. Foster Supports smart grid technology adoption and grid modernization. ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The City of Fort Collins endorses a multi-pronged approach to waste minimization that includes recycling, re-use, composting, and source reduction. Additionally, the City adopted goals of diverting 75% of community waste by 2020; 90% by 2025 and 100% by 2030. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Clarify and broaden the regulatory authority of local government to ensure the efficient management of recyclable material and solid waste. € 2. Supports creation of a state waste diversion goal 3. Provide incentives and funding for programs that promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling, and development of related infrastructure. 4. Supports programs to collect and monitor data on trash volumes, rates of diversion from landfill disposal and economic impacts of recycling. 5. Supports producer responsibility initiatives, such as “take back” regulations that assist consumers to appropriately recycle packaging materials or certain products (e.g., electronic equipment or mattresses)and seek to eliminate state statute CRS Section 25-17-104, which currently limits local authority to regulate packaging materials (e.g., single-use plastic bags). 6. Supports establishing deposit fee on beverage containers and that would be used to pay for recycling programs. FINANCE HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT Strong fiscal planning, prudent debt management and investment policies, and preservation of the City’s revenue base are vital in maintaining and improving the City’s financial health. Considering the known impacts of legislation on the City’s business community can help foster a stronger tax base and retain a strong quality of life. Therefore, the City: FI N A N C E RE C Y C L I N G A N D S O L I D W A S T E Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, 12 pt, Not Bold, No underline, Not Small caps Formatted: Left Formatted: Left Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Normal Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" 25 1. Maintain orSupports expanding municipal authority to establish alternative funding mechanisms, including financing tools such as public improvement fees (PIF) and certificates of participation (COP). 2. Supports Iincreasede funding for K-12 and higher education, specifically Colorado State University and Front Range Community College. 3. Promote Encourages the equitable treatment of sales and use taxes to residents and corporations residing or doing business in Colorado by limiting exemptions. 4. Recognize the importance of sales and use tax to local, self-collecting municipalities andSupports the equitabley distributione sales tax collections on e- commerce transactions. 5. Opposes efforts that inhibit the City’s ability to increase its revenue base (sales, use and property taxes). 5. = 1. Supports Pprotections , withoutthat do not unnecessarily restrict ing, the investments of government entities. 6. FIRE PROTECTION SAFE COMMUNITY The Fort Collins City Council recognizes the critical importance of maintaining a safe environment and protecting the lives and property of the citizens of Fort Collins. Therefore the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Institute a state fire code, the code of choice being the International Building and Fire Code, and allow municipalities to adopt their own amendments. 2. Oppose limits to local enforcement of the International Fire Code as adopted with local amendments, imposing inspection requirements or preventing collection of permit or inspection fees as required by the local jurisdiction. 3. Enhance life safety and property protection through the installation of fire protection systems in structures when appropriate and do not restrict any local jurisdiction from requiring the installation of fire sprinklers. FI R E P R O T E C T I O N Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" + 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: Not at 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" + 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline 26 4. Strengthen the City’s ability to prohibit the use and sale of fireworks and allow counties and fire districts to prohibit and otherwise control fireworks without approval of the County Commissioners. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS MANAGEMENT SAFE COMMUNITY; ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH It is an important concern of the City to safeguard Fort Collins’ health and environmental safety by reducing risks from the unauthorized release of hazardous materials or hazardous waste. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements:: 1. Allow the City to continue controlling risks from hazardous materials use, storage and transportation through the International Building and Fire Code and related local amendments. 2. Allow Fort Collins to adopt local regulations for hazardous materials, including review and approval of the location of facilities that use or store hazardous materials or hazardous waste. 3.1. Supports Strengthenstrengthening the enforcement of hazardous materials regulations. 4.2. Strengthen theSupports increasing diversion of hazardous waste from landfills. 3. Establish Supports greater flexibility and more options for local government in the management of publicly-owned areas thought to have asbestos-containing soils while maintaining responsible site management practices. 5.4. Support City’s ability to review and approve locations of facilities that use or store hazardous materials or hazardous waste. 6. Prevent and penalize improper storage and disposal of hazardous or exploration and production (E&P) wastes from oil and gas operations within municipal boundaries. 7. Preserve community safety by ensuring emergency responders have all available information needed to effectively address disasters and maintain public well-being. 8. Ensure hazardous materials are not stored or used within the 100-year floodplain. HA Z A R D O U S M A T E R I A L S Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: First line: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Normal 27 HOMELESSNESS NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH Homelessness and transient populations are persistent challenges in Fort Collins and other communities. Fort Collins works to address homelessness through partnering and supporting many community service providers and has a goal of making homelessness rare, short-lived, and non-recurring. The resource resistant populations are those that occupy public spaces and are not interested in housing or other community services offered. In this arena, the City supports efforts to address public safety concerns, enforce existing local laws, and maintain a welcoming environment for all. Therefore, the City: 1. Opposes efforts to undermine local control or enforcement of activities on public property. 2. Supports maintaining or increasing the funds available through the state and federal government for community-focused non-profits to provide human services and housing support. 3. Provide Supports providing communities with resources to address chronic homelessness, supportive housing, mental health, and substance abuse. 4. Develop strategies that balance the cost of services provided to the chronically homeless with the cost of providing permanent supportive housing. 5. Create Supports a standardized statewide approach to addressing homelessness. 6. Invest in innovative approaches to address the causes of homelessness. HUMAN RESOURCES HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City of Fort Collins is committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees. The City works diligently to be efficient and responsible stewards of tax dollars ensuring that employee compensation and benefits are fair, market-based, and competitive. The City believes that its citizens, through their elected representatives on City Council, are in the best position to determine appropriate City employee compensation, benefits, appeal rights related to disciplinary action and policies. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Enhance Supports the City’s ability to make decisions on employment issues, including collective bargaining, arbitration, compensation, appeal rights related to disciplinary action and benefits to further an equitable work environment. DE V E L O P M E N T R E V I E W Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic Formatted: Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Left Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" 28 2. Expand Supports expansion to the City’s ability to determine how best to manage health, welfare and wellness services for employees. 3. Maintain Supports current state funding levels for police officer death and disability benefits. 4. Opposes proposals that would allow employees and/or retirees with defined contribution plans to move into defined benefit plans if there is a cost to local government. 5. Opposes proposals that would limit the City’s ability to test job applicants or employees at work for impairment due to consumption of alcohol, marijuana, or other controlled substances or to set limits related to such testing. MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL SAFE COMMUNITY In 2012, Colorado voters have approved Amendment 64 which legalizationes the possession of adult-use or medical and recreational marijuana in the state. During the same election Fort Collins residents voted to approve the use of medical marijuana within the city. Federal law maintains that marijuana is a schedule 1 drug and, as such, can neither be possessed and used nor researched. The City of Fort Collins has a licensing program that supports the state dual-licensing system for medical and recreational marijuana businesses. The City also maintains liquor licensing authority. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Supports aligning federal marijuana law with the Colorado Constitution. 2. Supports communities’ ability to raise necessary funds to maintain public safety and enforce marijuana possession laws. 3. Supports additional state marijuana enforcement resources, especially for field enforcement. 4. Opposes under-21 access to marijuana. 1. Clarify the implementation and local rights and responsibilities related to Amendment 64. Clarify and align federal marijuana law with the Colorado Constitution. Protect communities’ ability to raise necessary funds to maintain public safety and enforce marijuana possession laws. MA R I J U A N A Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, Condensed by 0.2 pt Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, Condensed by 0.2 pt Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, Condensed by 0.2 pt Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, Condensed by 0.2 pt Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, Condensed by 0.2 pt Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Left Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS, Condensed by 0.2 pt Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: -0.25" 29 2. Prevent under-21 access to marijuana.. 3. Provide additional state marijuana enforcement resources, especially for field enforcement. 4. Clarify the qualifications for what types and purposes business may obtain and use a state liquor license. 5. Define what qualifies as a “meal” when calculating the percentage of meals served for a liquor license. 6. MUNICIPAL COURT SAFE COMMUNITY; HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The Fort Collins Municipal Court is responsible for administering the operations of the judicial branch of City government according to the City Charter and ordinances adopted by City Council. Cases adjudicated in Municipal Court include traffic violations, misdemeanors, and civil infractions, and civil cases. Generally, cases are brought to Municipal Court by the Fort Collins Police Services, Colorado State University Police Department, Animal Control, other City departments, and private residentscitizens. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: : 1. Opposes limitations on the authority of municipalities to enforce their own ordinances in municipal courts. 2. Opposes the imposition of state surcharges on municipal court fines for the purpose of funding state programs. 3. Opposes the unfunded mandate imposed by CRS Section 13-10-114.5, currently effective 07/01/2018, of having private defense counsel present for first advisements of in-custody defendants rather than continuing to have the Court appoint counsel after advisement if such a request is made by an indigent defendant. 2. OIL AND GAS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Oil and gas extraction activity and associated health and environmental impacts are a concern for Fort Collins. and many communities along the Front Range. There is a portion of a small oil field within Fort Collins ‘incorporated boundaries, and the City has entered into an Operator Agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), MU I C I P A L C O U R T OI L A N D G A S Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: -0.25", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Times New Roman Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: No bullets or numbering Formatted: Normal Formatted: No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Left Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: 0.56", Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" 30 that stipulates the operations, maintenance and inspection process for that operator’s local holdings. Fort Collins residents have expressed continuing concern about the human and environmental health impacts from oil and gas operations, particularly from the hydraulic fracturing treatment used on most Colorado wells. In November 2013, voters approved a five-year moratorium on oil and gas extraction in order to study its property value and human health impacts but this was overturned by the State Supreme Court in 2016. Additionally, transported emissions from oil and gas operations outside of City limits have been demonstrated to contribute to ozone formation.. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements:: 1. SupportsAllow greater local authority to regulateion of oil and gas exploration activities within municipal boundaries, including ability to inspect sites, ensure operator compliance, and regulate location of extraction, and storage and transmission activities.. 2. Encourage Supports state, federal, and academic studies evaluating impacts of oil and gas operations on human health and property values. 3. Supports Eestablishing baseline air pollution monitoring, emission characterization and modeling studies to better pollutant levels and understand the ongoing contributions of the oil and gas industry to air pollution. 3. 4. Provide local government the authority to inspect oil and gas sites and ensure operator compliance through enforcement of federal, state and local regulations. 5. Allow local governments the ability to apply municipal zoning on oil and gas extraction and storage activities. 6.4. Maintain Supports the current formula allocation of severance tax to impacted jurisdictions so that they might address impacts from resource extraction. 7.5. Incentivize Supports industry information sharing and collaboration with local governments on the planned development of resources within communities’ Growth Management Areas. OPEN RECORDS AND DATA MANAGEMENT? HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City is the collector and keeper of hundreds of datasets and recorded information. and is legally bound and responsible for responding to Open Record requests. The City supports transparency and open data initiatives. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports reasonable requests and timeframes for providing information that is legally available. Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Left, Indent: Left: 0", Right: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Left Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Not Bold, No underline, Not Small caps Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: List Paragraph, Left, Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" 31 2. Opposes mandates that include unrealistic timeframes and and requests that require additional staff time with no means to recuperate costs. 3. Supports cybersecurity efforts that protect the City, consumers, and infrastructure. PARKS AND, NATURAL AREAS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH; CULTURE AND RECREATION The City is committed to providing the community with excellent parks and recreation services and facilities. Our citizens enjoy a better quality of life, improved health, less crime and a greater sense of community because of our quality parks and recreation programs. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports maintaining or enhancing funding for parks, trails, forestry, horticulture and recreation services and facilities. 2. Supports local discretion to use Great Outdoors Colorado and other sources for funding municipal government projects addressing local needs and priorities. 3. Sustain availability of Great Outdoors Colorado grants to municipalities inSupports equal or greater funding levels of Great Outdoors Colorado grants awarded to municipalities. 4. Supports Mmaintaining or enhanceing tax incentives to private landowners for voluntary land conservation. 4. 5. Supports additional funding for conservation programs, including reinstating Colorado Parks and Wildlife license fees to at least 2005 levels. 6. Supports Pprotection of the Cache la Poudre River and local urban streams. PUBLIC HEALTH SAFE COMMUNITY; NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH The City of Fort Collins strives to be a welcoming and inclusive community for all, including residents who may be experiencing the challenges of homelessness, mental health issues, addiction, depression, and other challenging life situations. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports maintaining or increasing the funds available through the state and federal government for community-focused non-profits to provide human services and housing support. PA R K S A N D R E C R E A T I O N Formatted: List Paragraph, Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: List Paragraph, Left, Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Not Bold, No underline, Not Small caps Formatted: Left Formatted: Heading 2, Left, Indent: Left: 0", Right: 0" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.56", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0" 32 2. Supports providing communities with resources to address chronic homelessness, supportive housing, mental health, and substance abuse, including tobacco prevention programs. 3. Supports a standardized statewide approach to addressing homelessness. 4. Supports statewide efforts to enforce retail tobacco sales compliance. PUBLIC SAFETY OLICE SERVICES SAFE COMMUNITY The Fort Collins City Council recognizes the critical importance of maintaining public ordersafety, providing a safe environment, and protecting the lives and property of the citizens of Fort Collins on a daily basis as well as through preparedness and resilency planning efforts.. TTherefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Develop treatment and intervention programs, especially for youth, which have the potential to reduce incidents of violence in the community. 2.1. Provide Supports greater protections to victims of crime. 3.2. Maintain or enhanceSupports the City’s right to use camera enforcement of traffic laws, reduce operational restrictions on the use of camera enforcement, and increases the fines associated with violations. 4.3. Establish Supports protocols and funding for shared, statewide emergency response communications, including supporting Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority (LETA) and other efforts to resolve the 911 redundancy issue. 5.4. Opposes initiatives that have the potential to compromise officer safety. 6. Establish Supports minimum training criteria and professional mediator certification that formally legitimizes the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). 5. 7. Regulate the use of cell phones by motorists while operating a vehicle. 8. Preserve or increase funding for treatment of mental illness and substance abuse disorders. 9.6. Maintain or enhanceSupports maintenance of a statewide database of concealed weapons permits. 10. Seek to reduce community flood risks. PU B L I C S A F E T Y Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" 33 7. Reduce cities’Opposes municipal liability for prisoners’ self-inflicted wounds while in police custody or detention facilities. 8. Opposes efforts to undermine local control or enforcement of activities on public property. 9. Supports a state fire code, the code of choice being the International Building and Fire Code, and allowing municipalities to adopt their own amendments. 10. Opposes limits to local enforcement of the International Fire Code as adopted with local amendments, imposing inspection requirements or preventing collection of permit or inspection fees as required by the local jurisdiction. 11. Opposes restricting any local jurisdiction from requiring the installation of fire sprinklers. Supports the City’s ability to prohibit the use and sale of fireworks and allow counties and fire districts to prohibit and otherwise control fireworks within City boundaries.s 11.12. 12. Restrict access to illegal substances. 13. Require greater producer responsibility, such as “take back” for prescription drugs to avoid these substances being abused or being disposed of into the water supply. Supports efforts to reduce abuse and improper disposal of prescription drugs. 13. Supports exclusive digital communication networks for public safety personnel during emergencies. 14. Increasing state, regional and local disaster resilience. 15. Promote efforts to reduce conflict between community members and law enforcement. 16. Encourage the voluntary use of body-worn camera technology on officers and development of community-specific standards for the use of cameras and their data. Develop grant programs for police department use to fund the purchase, training and deployment of body-worn cameras and the retention of footage. 14. 17. Enhance exclusive digital communication networks for public safety personnel during emergencies. 18. PU B L I C S A F E T Y Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: 0.5", List tab Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Normal Formatted: No bullets or numbering 34 RECYCLING AND SOLID WASTE REDUCTION ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The City of Fort Collins endorses a multi-pronged approach to waste minimization that includes recycling, re-use, composting, and source reduction, and which also applies Sustainable Materials Management principles such as redesigning systems to reduce pollution and waste. Additionally, the City has adopted a goal of diverting 75 percent of community waste by 2020; 90 percent by 2025, and 100 percent by 2030. Therefore, the City: 1. Encourages integrated waste management planning and implementation, including but not limited to Supports Supports the creation of a state waste diversion goal. 2. Supports a regulatory authority role for local government to ensure the efficient management of recyclable material and solid waste. 3. Encourages “buy recycled” or “environmentally preferable purchasing” policies for government agency procurement. 4. Supports incentives and funding for programs that promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling, and development of related infrastructure. 7.5. Supports continued or increased funding for programs to collect and monitor data on trash volumes, rates of diversion from landfill disposal and economic impacts of recycling. 8.6. Supports greater producer responsibility initiatives, such as “take back” regulations that assist consumers to appropriately recycle packaging materials or certain products (e.g., electronic equipment or mattresses) 9.7. Opposes CRS Section 25-17-104, which currently limits local authority to regulate packaging materials (e.g., single-use plastic bags). 10.8. Supports establishing deposit fee on beverage containers and that would be used to pay for recycling programs. RISK MANAGEMENT AND LIABILITY HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT RE C Y C L I N G A N D S O L I D W A S T E Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.06", Left Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Tab stops: 0.06", Left + 1.66", Left Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: 0.06", Left + Not at 2.11" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: Not at 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: Not at 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: Not at 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.25", No bullets or numbering, Tab stops: Not at 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 0.75", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline 35 The City of Fort Collins recognizes the dual purpose of the workers’ compensation system – providing benefits promptly to injured employees in a cost-effective manner and minimizing costly litigation. Council also recognizes that the City’s self-insurance program is a cost-efficient method to insure workers’ compensation and that government intervention or taxation can negatively impact the City. Therefore, the City supports the following policy statements: 1. Supports iImprovinge administrative efficiency of the Division of Workers’ Compensation. 2. Resist Opposes increased insurance premium costs to employers. 3. Limit or reduceOpposes administrative burdens or taxes to self-insurance programs. 4. Supports lLimits to insurance claim litigation. 5. Increase theOpposes limiting the City’s options and ability to manage workers’ compensation claims; oppose including actions like removing existing off-sets to workers’ compensation benefits or limiting the City’s ability to designate treating physicians. 6. Opposes efforts to presumptively expand workers’ compensation coverage to illnesses or injuries that are not work related. TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILTYMOBILITY The City actively promotes the safety and ease of traveling to, from and throughout the community using a variety of modes of transportation. Additionally, the City’s policy is to encourage the use of alternative transportation whenever appropriate. Therefore, the City supports the following policies: : 1. Facilitate cooperative programs among government agencies in order to help the City meet its basic transportation needs, including transit, street, highway, road and bridge construction and maintenance, and safe corridors for bicyclists, pedestrians and those using mobility aid devices. 2.1. Opposes reductions to the present allocation formula of 60 percent state, 22 percent counties, and 18 percent municipalities for Highway User Tax Fund (HUTF) or any appropriations from the state using the same formula. 3.2. Explore and analyzeSupports alternative methods of funding transportation infrastructure needs. RI S K M A N A G E M E N T TR A N S P O R T A T I O N Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Left Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Italic, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" 36 4. Support Ffunding the analysis and implementation of inter- and intra-regional transit linkages, including future commuter rail connectivity. 3. 5. Facilitate regional planning for various modes of transportation with the goal of providing practical solutions to reduce reliance on single-occupant vehicles. 6. Encourages flexibility in federal funding and regulations in order to better meet the needs of small to medium-size communities. 4. 7. Encourage or incent locating affordable housing near transit for greatest accessibility. 8.5. Preserve Supports the guaranteed levels of federal funding for transportation and allocation of all federal motor fuel taxes and other federal transportation trust funds for their intended transportation purposes. 9. Supports Bbroadening the definition of the gasoline tax to a “fuel tax” that encompasses other fuel options as they become more prevalent. 10. Increase local governments’ ability to prevent railroad trains from blocking street and highway grade crossings for unreasonable time periods. 6. 11. Foster dialogue between railroad operators and communities aimed at solutions to rail proximity issues. 12.7. Facilitate Supports enhanced ability tothe implementation of railroad quiet zones in municipalities and a reduction ine train horn decibel and duration requirements in existing federal rule. 13.8. Opposes divesting key highway roads in urban areas from the state and makinge them the sole responsibility of local jurisdictions. 14.9. Maintain Supports safe operation of railroads through timely track inspections, joint training and communication between railroad and emergency personnel, and the use of safe equipment. 15.10. Develop financing programsSupports funding for the build out forof Interstate 25 improvements, which may include a ballot measure.. 16.11. Explore solutions to improve bicycle safety and fund implementation projects in communities. Opposes reductions in federal dollars for alternate travel modes. 17. Clarify federal and state regulations in order to preserve local governments’ ability to utilize unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for service-related purposes. 18. Ensure local government has access to test the use of UAVs in service delivery. Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.13" + Tab after: 0.38" + Indent at: 0.38", Tab stops: Not at 0.38" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.13" + Tab after: 0.38" + Indent at: 0.38", Tab stops: Not at 0.38" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.13" + Tab after: 0.38" + Indent at: 0.38", Tab stops: Not at 0.38" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", Tab stops: Not at 0.38" Formatted: Normal, Indent: Left: 0", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.13" + Tab after: 0.38" + Indent at: 0.38", Tab stops: Not at 0.38" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.75" 37 URBAN RENEWAL AND DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENTAUTHORITY ECONOMIC HEALTH The state of Colorado has empowered local authorities to use Urban Renewal Authorities to encourage revitalization and the elimination of blight. The main funding tool for URA is Tax Increment Financing (TIF) generated through property taxes. In its best intention, urban renewal restores economic vitality and improves the safety of a designated area, with limited financial impact to other government jurisdictions. Therefore, the City: 1. Opposes limitations on municipalities’ ability to utilize financing mechanisms such as TIF or Metro Districts. 2. Opposes efforts to allow non-City jurisdictions to have influence over the use of TIF within City limits 3. Supports maintaining the ability of downtown development authorities to utilize urban renewal tools. WATER, WASTEWATER, AND STORMWATER ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH; SAFE COMMUNITY The City operates a water, wastewater, and stormwater utility in a financially sound, reliable, safe, and environmentally acceptable manner. The availability of water supplies is critical to this mission and is managed by both the Water Demand and Supply Policy, and the Water Efficiency Plan. Therefore, the City: 1. Maintain orSupports expanding the authority delegated to the state to administer federally mandated water, stormwater and wastewater environmental regulatory programs (primacy).. 2. Enact Supports reasonable water quality regulations that are cost effective and can show identifiable benefits. 2. 3. Provide cities theSupports municipal flexibility to enhance manage in-stream flows to preserve or improve the natural environment of the stream while protecting the integrity of Colorado’s appropriation doctrine and City water supply. 3. 4. Stipulate adequate funding for local governments toOpposes implement mandated programs.unfunded mandates 5. Remove Opposes barriers to financing for water conservation projects. WA T E R SU P P L Y A N D Q U A L I T Y Formatted: Left, Indent: Left: 0.75" Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0", First line: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: 14 pt, Not Bold, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.75" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0", First line: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.75" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.5", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.75" Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.5", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.75", No bullets or numbering Formatted: List Paragraph, Indent: Left: 0.5", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Trebuchet MS Formatted: Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0", First line: 0.5" Formatted: Font: Not Bold, Not Small caps Formatted: Font: 14 pt, Not Bold, No underline Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 1", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5", Numbered + Level: 1 + Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab after: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.5", Tab stops: 1", List tab + Not at 0.5" Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.75" 38 6. Fund Supports funding for the recovery and treatment of the Cache la Poudre and other waterways impacted by natural disasters. 7. Enable the City to develop,Supports enhanced municipal authority to protect and increase the flexibility and resiliency of its water supply under Colorado’s appropriation doctrine without adversely affecting in-stream flows or the natural environment of the stream. 8. Supports streamlining federal and state permitting requirements for water development projects that increase coordination between permitting agencies, reduces administrative and financial burdens on permit applicants, and ensures robust and enforceable environmental protections. Supports the enlargement of Halligan Reservoir as a common-sense, cost-effective, and environmentally beneficial approach to meet Fort Collins’ future water supply needs. 7.9. Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5", Tab stops: Not at 0.81" + 1" Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0" 39 SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY FORT COLLINS HAS IMPLEMENTED A TRIPLE-BOTTOM LINE-ORIENTED SUSTAINABILITY SERVICE AREA IN AN EFFORT TO ENSURE COMMUNITY RESOURCES ARE ALLOCATED BY CONSIDERING EQUALLY HUMAN, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS. THE SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY DEPARTMENT’S MISSION IS TO SUPPORT A DIVERSE, EQUITABLE, AND INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY THAT SUCCESSFULLY MEETS THE BASIC NEEDS OF ALL RESIDENTS. THIS MISSION IS SUPPORTED THROUGH PROGRAMS, POLICIES, AND PARTNERSHIPS THAT PROVIDE ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL. THEREFORE THE CITY SUPPORTS THE FOLLOWING POLICY STATEMENTS: 1. ADEQUATELY FUND K-12 AND PUBLIC POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS TO ENSURE OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUTH. 2. PROVIDE FUNDING FOR BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS AND SCHOOL OUT DAYS AIMED AT AT-RISK POPULATION AND LOW- TO MODERATE-INCOME FAMILIES. 3. ENHANCE NEIGHBOR RELATIONS BY IMPROVING THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO COMMUNITY MEDIATION AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROGRAMS. 4. PROVIDE COMMUNITIES WITH RESOURCES TO ADDRESS CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS, MENTAL HEALTH, AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE. 5. PROVIDE REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION AND EXPAND ACCESS FOR SPECIAL POPULATIONS, INCLUDING INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AT-RISK YOUTH, PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS, AND HOUSEHOLDS NEEDING AFFORDABLE CHILDCARE. CITY OF FORT COLLINS LEGISLATIVE CONTACTS Legislative Review Committee Name District/Title Email Phone Councilmember Gino CampanaKen Summers District 3 gcampanaksummers@fcg ov.com (970) 221- 6878460-6329 Councilmember Ross CunniffBob Overbeck District 15 rcunniffboverbeck@fcgo v.com (970) 420- 7398221-6917 Councilmember Ray Martinez District 2 raymartinez@fcgov.com (970) 690 3686 Wendy WilliamsJeff Mihelich Assistant Deputy City Manager wwilliamsjmihelich@fcg ov.com (970) 416-2899 Carrie Daggett City Attorney cdaggett@fcgov.com (970) 416-2463 SO C I A L S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Centered, No bullets or numbering Formatted: Heading 2, Indent: Left: 0" Formatted: Heading 2, Centered 40 Ginny Sawyer Tyler Marr Legislative Staff gsawyer@fcgov.com tmarr@fcgov.com (970) 224-6094 (970) 416-4205 Legislative Staff Liaison Members Topic Area Name Title Email Phone Affordable Housing and Social Sustainability Beth Sowder Social Sustainability Director bsowder@fcgov.com (970) 221-6752 Air Quality Cassie Archuleta Environmental PlannerProgram Manager carchuleta@fcgov.com Cable Television Franchise Carson Hamlin Cable Television Manager chamlin@fcgov.com (970) 221-6510 Climate Lindsay Ex Environmental Program Manager lex@fcgov.com (970)224-6143 Environmental Protection Lucinda Smith Environmental Services Director lsmith@fcgov.com (970) 224-6085 Elections, Liquor and Marijuana Licensing Wanda WinkelmannD elynn Coldiron Interim City Clerk wwinkelmanndcoldiron@ fcgov.com (970) 416-2995 Cultural Services, Parks and Recreation Mike Calhoon Director of Parks mcalhoon@fcgov.com (970) 416-2079 Energy Tim McCollough John Phelan Light and Power Operations Manager Resource Conservation Manager tmccollough@fcgov.com jphelan@fcgov.com (970) 416-2622 (970) 416-2539 Finance Mikechael Beckstead Chief Financial Officer mbeckstead@fcgov.com (970) 221-6795 Economic Health Josh Birks Economic Health Director jbirks@fcgov.com (970) 221-6324 Fire Protection and Hazardous Materials Mgmt Bob Poncelow Division Chief, Poudre Fire Authority bponcelow@poudre- fire.org (970) 416-2871 Legislative Staff Liaison Members Human Resources Janet Miller Assistant Human Resources Director jamiller@fcgov.com (970) 221-6826 Legal Carrie Daggett City Attorney cdaggett@fcgov.com (970) 416-2463 Natural Areas, Open Lands and Cache la Poudre River Issues John Stokes Natural Resources Director jstokes@fcgov.com (970) 221-6263 Formatted: Highlight Formatted: Highlight Formatted: Highlight Formatted: Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Highlight 41 Neighborhood and Building Services Mike GeboRuss Hovland Chief Building Official mgeborhovland@fcgov.c om (970) 416- 2341618 Planning and Land Use Tom Leeson Community Development and Neighborhood Services Director tleeson@fcgov.com (970) 221-6287 Public Safety Jerry SchiagerGreg Yeager Assistant Deputy Chief jschiagergdyeager@fcgo v.com (970) 416- 25872185 Recycling and Solid Waste Susie Gordon Senior Environmental PlannerProgram Manager sgordon@fcgov.com (970) 221-6265 Risk Management Kelly Bernish Safety, Security, and Risk Management Director kbernish@fcgov.com (970) 221-6774 Stormwater Matt FaterJon Haukaas Water Engineering Field Operations Manager jhaukaasmfater@fcgov.c om (970) 221-6671 Transportation Mark Jackson Planning, Development and Transportation Deputy Director mjackson@fcgov.com (970) 416-2029 Utilities Customer Service Lisa Rosintoski Utility Customer Connections Manager lrosintoski@fcgov.com (970) 416-2432 Water Supply and Quality Carol Webb Water Resource and Treatment Operations Manager cwebb@fcgov.com (970) 221-6231 Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Not Highlight Formatted: Hyperlink, Font: (Default) Trebuchet MS, 11 pt Formatted: Hyperlink, Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt Formatted: Hyperlink, Font: (Default) Trebuchet MS, 11 pt Formatted: Hyperlink, Font: (Default) Trebuchet MS, 11 pt, Not Highlight Formatted: Hyperlink, Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt 2018 Legislative Policy Agenda Adopted November xx, 2017 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ 2 Home Rule and Local Control .................................................................................................... 5 Affordable Housing .................................................................................................................... 5 Air Quality .................................................................................................................................. 6 Beer and Liquor .......................................................................................................................... 6 Broadband and Cable .................................................................................................................. 7 Climate ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Development Review and Land Use Planning ........................................................................... 8 Elections ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Energy ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Finance ........................................................................................................................................ 9 Hazardous Materials Management ........................................................................................... 10 Human Resources ..................................................................................................................... 10 Marijuana ................................................................................................................................. 11 Municipal Court ........................................................................................................................ 11 Oil and Gas ............................................................................................................................... 12 Open records and data management ......................................................................................... 13 Parks and Natural Areas............................................................................................................ 13 Public Health ............................................................................................................................. 14 Public safety .............................................................................................................................. 14 Recycling and Solid Waste Reduction ...................................................................................... 15 Risk Management and Liability ................................................................................................ 16 Transportation ........................................................................................................................... 17 Urban renewal and Downtown Development ........................................................................... 17 Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater ........................................................................................ 18 City of Fort Collins Legislative Contacts ................................................................................. 20 3 INTRODUCTION Fort Collins is a community of 161,000 residents. Incorporated in 1873, the City has grown to become the commercial, educational and cultural hub of Northern Colorado. The City adopted a home rule charter in 1954 and operates under a Council-Manager form of government. The City is a data-driven municipal organization that strives to fulfill its mission, “Exceptional service for an exceptional community”, through a vision of providing world-class municipal services through operational excellence and a culture of innovation. City leaders seek innovative solutions to issues facing the community and are often willing to leverage emerging technologies. The Fort Collins City Council annually adopts a Legislative Priorities and Policy Agenda ahead of the upcoming Colorado general Assembly session for the purpose of guiding legislators and staff in supporting community goals.  The Legislative Priorities are broad issues Fort Collins is focused on during the Colorado General Assembly and United States Congress sessions. The Priorities may carry over year to year since they are larger, more challenging issues that may take multi-year work to influence.  The Policy Agenda is broad set of policy statements meant to convey positions on issues that affect the quality of life and the governance of our community. It is structured to address areas of local concern and to also reflect the strategic planning that guides City of Fort Collins organizational resource allocation and decision making. Fort Collins welcomes opportunities to work in partnership to leverage additional resources and participate in regional dialogue to achieve shared outcomes. The City has identified seven outcome areas to ensure appropriate and effective resource allocation supporting the community’s priorities. Outcome areas include Culture and Recreation; Economic Health; Environmental Health; High Performing Government; Neighborhood Livability and Social Health; Safe Community; and Transportation and Mobility. The Policy Agenda identifies this alignment as it is important for City staff to ensure that advocacy supports specific desired outcomes. 4 CITY OF FORT COLLINS LEGISLATIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE The Legislative Review Committee (LRC) is a representative group of Council members that reviews and reacts to proposed legislation on behalf of City Council and the City. In taking a position on particular bills, the LRC interprets and applies the various policies that are included in the Legislative Policy Agenda. Council Members presently serving on the Legislative Review Committee are:  Councilmember Ken Summers  Councilmember Bob Overbeck  Councilmember Ray Martinez LEGISLATIVE REVIEW PROCESS Bills introduced in the Colorado General Assembly, United States Congress and federal, state or county regulations or rulemakings are reviewed by City staff or the City’s contract lobbyist. Bills, regulations and rules that are identified as having a potential impact on the City will be brought to the LRC for discussion. If LRC adopts a position, staff and/or lobbyists will convey that information to the appropriate state or federal representative and advocate for the adopted position. Due to the time-sensitive nature of the General Assembly, if a bill’s subject matter is explicitly addressed in this Policy Agenda, staff will proactively work with state and federal representatives to advance the City’s position as expressed in this legislative policy agenda and other Council-adopted plans and policies, while updating the LRC until such time that LRC may take a position. Staff liaisons support the LRC by contributing expertise in various areas of municipal service. The City Attorney’s Office also reviews selected bills and may provide confidential legal analysis. The input offered by staff and the City’s attorneys is invaluable in analyzing impacts of legislative, regulatory and rulemaking proposals to Fort Collins operations and the community. Fort Collins also works with community partners to support local projects and staff collaborates with representatives of other municipalities on mutually-held priorities. Fort Collins actively seeks innovative partnerships to leverage positive outcomes for residents. The City works closely with the Colorado Municipal League (CML) and the National League of Cities (NLC) on many legislative items facing cities. Fort Collins maintains membership with Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities (CAMU) which represents 29 municipal utilities throughout the state on utility issues, Colorado Communities for Climate Action (CC4CA) which represents municipalities on climate issues. In addition, Fort Collins actively participates in various trade organizations which represent specific areas of interest to City operations. In 2018, Fort Collins will partner again with Bowditch and Cassell to maintain a fulltime presence at the state capitol. 5 2018 LEGISLATIVE POLICY STATEMENTS HOME RULE AND LOCAL CONTROL In order to consider and manage local conditions and desires, community issues and needs should be addressed locally. For this reason, home rule authority is of utmost importance to the City of Fort Collins. The City must be free to regulate local activities that primarily impact the area within the City's boundaries, such as the speed of local traffic or the effects of particular land use developments. The City also understands the accumulative effect of these and other activities have statewide ramifications that may call for statewide regulation, to effectively manage such things as overall growth and development in the state, traffic congestion in major transportation corridors and environmental quality. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports strengthening and preserving home rule authority of municipal governments. 2. Opposes State or Federal intervention in matters of local concern or matters that unnecessarily or adversely affect the City’s ability to manage and operate pursuant to its home rule authority. 3. Opposes changes that increase (and support changes that lessen) the burdens on municipalities associated with public or other government records, establishment of ethics standards and procedures, operation of municipal courts, and other matters of municipal operations or authority. 4. Supports enabling cities to choose the provision of services through private enterprise in a manner that fosters cost effective, sustainable, quality services. 5. Supports local control of the awarding of contracts and the accountability of local officials for those actions. 6. Opposes mandates that increase the complexity and cost of services without improving those services. AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH The City recognizes that the affordability and availability of decent housing is critical to a vibrant and diverse community. Therefore, the City: 6 1. Supports maintaining or enhancing current levels of funding for affordable housing throughout Colorado, including expanding the State Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. 2. Supports increasing local government’s ability to regulate, manage or generate alternative sources of funding for affordable housing, including public-private partnerships. 3. Supports stronger amendments to construction defect laws to promote the construction of owner occupied-attached housing. 4. Supports creating an adequate supply of housing for all income levels and continued public and private sector support for these efforts . AIR QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The City’s Air Quality Plan establishes a strong overall goal to “continually improve Fort Collins air quality.” Therefore, the City: 1. Supports programs and policies that improve public health and air quality, and support rapid attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards , including ozone. 2. Supports local government authority to improve air quality beyond minimum State or Federal requirements. 3. Supports adequate authority and resource at all levels of government to enforce air quality regulations. 4. Supports economic incentives, disincentives and other market approaches that promote lower emissions, and fewer carbon-based fuels. 5. Supports strengthening standards for tailpipe emissions, aggregate vehicle emissions and/or fuel economy for all vehicles . Supports programs and policies that promote the use of electric vehicles and the development of infrastructure needed to support the use of those vehicles. BEER AND LIQUOR SAFE COMMUNITY The City issues and renews liquor licenses, enforces license rules, and holds hearings for liquor license violations. Therefore, the City: 7 1. Supports clarifying the qualifications for what types and purposes a business may obtain and use a state liquor license. 2. Supports definition of a “meal” when calculating the percentage of meals served for a liquor license. BROADBAND AND CABLE ECONOMIC HEALTH Reliable, high-speed, and affordable access to broadband and cable programming throughout the community remains a priority and a long -term goal for the City to ensure our economic vitality and allow for equal access for all residents and businesses. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports maintaining local franchising authority to preserve local governments’ ability to negotiate in the public interest for cable channel space, institutional networks and public education and government programming. 2. Supports allowing communities to offer and/or partner to offer high speed internet, Wi-Fi and other enhanced telecommunication services to residents, schools, academic institutions and businesses. 3. Opposes restrictions on providing telecommunication services within City-owned facilities and on City property. 4. Opposes infringement on municipalities’ ability to compete in the broadband marketplace. 5. Opposes right of way use contrary to existing aesthetic policies and practices, including the addition of any above ground cabling. CLIMATE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Making communities more resilient to disaster and the effects of a changing climate has become more important to Colorado communities over the last several years as natural disasters have caused significant human and property loss. Fort Collins has adopted aggressive emission reduction goals and supports policies and legislation helping communities and the state to achieve these goals and enhance the environment as detailed in the Climate Action Plan. Therefore the City: 1. Supports greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, planning, and implementation at all levels of government. 8 2. Supports market-based mechanisms to reduce emissions, including incentives, enabling legislation, and other mechanisms to achieve emissions reductions and increase resiliency in energy, waste reduction, transportation, and water sectors . 3. Supports protection of the Colorado self-audit law. 4. Supports reducing the emission of criteria pollutants. DEVELOPMENT REVIEW AND LAND USE PLANNING ECONOMIC HEALTH, NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH Fort Collins has a well-established development review process, land use and building code; all of which align with local priorities. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports financially compensation for additional work of inspectors through fees or other means. 2. Opposes additional mandated inspection work. 3. Supports local governments’ authority to determine development review and inspection timelines. 4. Encourages regional cooperation in land use and transportation planning, and foster sustainable development. 5. Supports prohibition to the annexation of land that is located within the boundaries of a Growth Management Area that was legally established by an intergovernmental agreement between a municipality and a county by any municipality not a party to the agreement. 6. Supports municipal discretion concerning the imposition of development fees and requirements. ELECTIONS HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City of Fort Collins conducts municipal elections in April of odd years and special elections upon initiative referrals. The City is committed to conducting a clear, leagal, and trustworthy elections process. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports 2. Supports 3. Opposes 9 ENERGY ECONOMIC HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH As a municipally-owned electric utility, the City is committed to providing affordable, reliable, and clean energy services to residents and businesses, as detailed in the Energy Policy. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports all efforts that promote energy affordability, safety, and reductions in fossil-fuel generated consumption for residents, businesses and institutions 2. Supports reductions in environmental damage caused by energy extraction and production. 3. Supports opportunities for energy efficiency, production, and operation in local economies. 4. Opposes barriers to coordinating integrated planning for energy supply and demands. 5. Supports state and federal funding for resilience efforts to mitigate potential energy and climate related disruptions. 6. Supports federal and state incentives for renewable energy production, including wind power, and provide for “State Implementation Plan” credits for renewable energy (excluding residential wood burning and corn-based ethanol) and energy efficiency. 7. Opposes attempts to prevent or inhibit provision of municipal electric service in newly annexed areas. 8. Supports smart grid technology adoption and grid modernization. FINANCE HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT Strong fiscal planning, prudent debt management and investment policies, and preservation of the City’s revenue base are vital in maintaining and improving the City’s financial health. Considering the known impacts of legislation on the City’s business community can help foster a stronger tax base and retain a strong quality of life. Therefore, the City: 10 1. Supports expanding municipal authority to establish alternative funding mechanisms, including financing tools such as public improvement fees (PIF) and certificates of participation (COP). 2. Supports increased funding for K-12 and higher education, specifically Colorado State University and Front Range Community College. 3. Encourages the equitable treatment of sales and use taxes to residents and corporations residing or doing business in Colorado by limiting exemptions. 4. Supports the equitable distribution sales tax collections on e-commerce transactions. 5. Opposes efforts that inhibit the City’s ability to increase its revenue base (sales, use and property taxes). 6. Supports protections that do not unnecessarily restrict the investments of government entities. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS MANAGEMENT SAFE COMMUNITY; ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH It is an important concern of the City to safeguard Fort Collins’ health and environmental safety by reducing risks from the unauthorized release of hazardous materials or hazardous waste. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports strengthening the enforcement of hazardous materials regulations. 2. Supports increasing diversion of hazardous waste from landfills. 3. Supports greater flexibility and more options for local government in the management of publicly-owned areas thought to have asbestos-containing soils while maintaining responsible site management practices. 4. Support City’s ability to review and approve locations of facilities that use or store hazardous materials or hazardous waste. HUMAN RESOURCES HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City of Fort Collins is committed to the health, safety and well -being of its employees. The City works diligently to be efficient and responsible stewards of tax 11 dollars ensuring that employee compensation and benefits are fair, market-based, and competitive. The City believes that its citizens, through their elected representatives on City Council, are in the best position to determine appropriate City employee compensation, benefits, appeal rights related to disciplinary action and policies. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports the City’s ability to make decisions on employment issues, including collective bargaining, arbitration, compensation, appeal rights related to disciplinary action and benefits to further an equitable work environment. 2. Supports expansion to the City’s ability to determine how best to manage health, welfare and wellness services for employees. 3. Supports current state funding levels for police officer death and disability benefits. 4. Opposes proposals that would allow employees and/or retirees with defined contribution plans to move into defined benefit plans if there is a cost to local government. 5. Opposes proposals that would limit the City’s ability to test job applicants or employees at work for impairment due to consumption of alcohol , marijuana, or other controlled substances or to set limits related to such testing. MARIJUANA SAFE COMMUNITY Colorado voters have approved legalization of medical and recreational marijuana. The City of Fort Collins has a licensing program that supports the state dual -licensing system for medical and recreational marijuana businesses. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports aligning federal marijuana law with the Colorado Constitution. 2. Supports communities’ ability to raise necessary funds to maintain public safety and enforce marijuana possession laws. 3. Supports additional state marijuana enforcement resources, especially for field enforcement. 4. Opposes under-21 access to marijuana. MUNICIPAL COURT SAFE COMMUNITY; HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT 12 The Fort Collins Municipal Court is responsible for administering the operations of the judicial branch of City government according to the City Charter and ordinances adopted by City Council. Cases adjudicated in Municipal Court include traffic violations, misdemeanors, civil infractions, and civil cases Generally, cases are brought to Municipal Court by the Fort Collins Police Services, Colorado State University Police Department, Animal Control, other City departments, and private citizens. Therefore, the City: 1. Opposes limitations on the authority of municipalities to enforce their own ordinances in municipal courts. 2. Opposes the imposition of state surcharges on municipal court fines for the purpose of funding state programs. 3. Opposes the unfunded mandate imposed by CRS Section 13-10-114.5, currently effective 07/01/2018, of having private defense counsel present for first advisements of in-custody defendants rather than continuing to have the Court appoint counsel after advisement if such a request is made by an indigent defendant. OIL AND GAS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Oil and gas extraction activity and associated health and environmental impacts are a concern for Fort Collins. . Fort Collins residents have expressed continuing concern about the human and environmental health impacts from oil and gas operations, particularly from the hydraulic fracturing treatment used on most Colorado wells. In November 2013, voters approved a five-year moratorium on oil and gas extraction in order to study its property value and human health impacts but this was overturned by the State Supreme Court in 2016. Additionally, transported emissions from oil and gas operations outside of City limits have been demonstrated to contribute to ozone formation. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports greater local authority to regulate oil and gas exploration activities within municipal boundaries, including ability to inspect sites, ensure operator compliance, and regulate location of extraction, storage and transmission activities. 2. Supports state, federal, and academic studies evaluating impacts of oil and gas operations on human health and property values. 3. Supports air pollution monitoring, emission characterization and modeling studies to better understand the contributions of the oil and gas industry to air pollution. 13 4. Supports the current formula allocation of severance tax to impacted jurisdictions so that they might address impacts from resource extraction. 5. Supports industry information sharing and collaboration with local governments on the planned development of resources within communities’ Growth Management Areas. OPEN RECORDS AND DATA MANAGEMENT HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City is the collector and keeper of hundreds of datasets and recorded information. and is legally bound and responsible for responding to Open Record requests. The City supports transparency and open data initiatives. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports reasonable requests and timeframes for providing information that is legally available. 2. Opposes mandates that include unrealistic timeframes and and requests that require additional staff time with no means to recuperate costs. 3. Supports cybersecurity efforts that protect the City, consumers, and infrastructure. PARKS AND NATURAL AREAS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH; CULTURE AND RECREATION The City is committed to providing the community with excellent parks and recreation services and facilities. Our citizens enjoy a better quality of life, improved health, less crime and a greater sense of community because of our quality parks and recreation programs. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports maintaining or enhancing funding for parks, trails, forestry, horticulture and recreation services and facilities. 2. Supports local discretion to use Great Outdoors Colorado and other sources for funding municipal government projects addressing local needs and priorities. 3. Supports equal or greater funding levels of Great Outdoors Colorado grants awarded to municipalities 4. Supports maintaining or enhancing tax incentives to private landowners for voluntary land conservation. 14 5. Supports additional funding for conservation programs, including reinstating Colorado Parks and Wildlife license fees to at least 2005 levels. 6. Supports protection of the Cache la Poudre River and local urban streams. PUBLIC HEALTH SAFE COMMUNITY; NEIGHBORHOOD LIVABILITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH The City of Fort Collins strives to be a welcoming and inclusive community for all, including residents who may be experiencing the challenges of homelessness, mental health issues, addiction, depression, and other challenging life situations. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports maintaining or increasing the funds available through the state and federal government for community-focused non-profits to provide human services and housing support. 2. Supports providing communities with resources to address chronic homelessness, supportive housing, mental health, and substance abuse, including tobacco prevention programs. 3. Supports a standardized statewide approach to addressing homelessness. 4. Supports statewide efforts to enforce retail tobacco sales compliance. PUBLIC SAFETY SAFE COMMUNITY The Fort Collins City Council recognizes the critical importance of maintaining public safety, providing a safe environment, and protecting the lives and property of the citizens of Fort Collins on a daily basis as well as through preparedness and resilency planning efforts. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports greater protections to victims of crime. 2. Supports the City’s right to use camera enforcement of traffic laws, reduce operational restrictions on the use of camera enforcement, and increases the fines associated with violations. 3. Supports protocols and funding for shared, statewide emergency response communications, including supporting Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority (LETA) and other efforts to resolve the 911 redundancy issue. 15 4. Opposes initiatives that have the potential to compromise officer safety. 5. Supports minimum training criteria and professional mediator certification that formally legitimizes the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). 6. Supports maintenance of a statewide database of concealed weapons permits. 7. Opposes municipal liability for prisoners’ self-inflicted wounds while in police custody or detention facilities. 8. Opposes efforts to undermine local control or enforcement of activities on public property. 9. Supports a state fire code, the code of choice being the International Building and Fire Code, and allowing municipalities to adopt their own amendments. 10. Opposes limits to local enforcement of the International Fire Code as adopted with local amendments, imposing inspection requirements or preventing collection of permit or inspection fees as required by the local jurisdiction. 11. Opposes restricting any local jurisdiction from requiring the installation of fire sprinklers. 12. Supports the City’s ability to prohibit the use and sale of fireworks and allow counties and fire districts to prohibit and otherwise control fireworks within City boundaries. 13. Supports efforts to reduce abuse and improper disposal of prescription drugs. 14. Supports exclusive digital communication networks for public safety personnel during emergencies. RECYCLING AND SOLID WASTE REDUCTION ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The City of Fort Collins endorses a multi-pronged approach to waste minimization that includes recycling, re-use, composting, and source reduction, and which also applies Sustainable Materials Management principles such as redesigning systems to reduce pollution and waste. Additionally, the City has adopted a goal of diverting 75 percent of community waste by 2020; 90 percent by 2025, and 100 percent by 2030. Therefore, the City: 1. Encourages integrated waste management planning and implementation, including but not limited to the creation of a state waste diversion goal. 2. Supports a regulatory authority role for local government to ensure the efficient management of recyclable material and solid waste. 16 3. Encourages “buy recycled” or “environmentally preferable purchasing” policies for government agency procurement. 4. Supports incentives and funding for programs that promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling, and development of related infrastructure. 5. Supports continued or increased funding for programs to collect and monitor data on trash volumes, rates of diversion from landfill disposal and economic impacts of recycling. 6. Supports greater producer responsibility initiatives, such as “take back” regulations that assist consumers to appropriately recycle packaging materials or certain products (e.g., electronic equipment or mattresses) 7. Opposes CRS Section 25-17-104, which currently limits local authority to regulate packaging materials (e.g., single-use plastic bags). 8. Supports establishing deposit fee on beverage containers and that would be used to pay for recycling programs. RISK MANAGEMENT AND LIABILITY HIGH PERFORMING GOVERNMENT The City of Fort Collins recognizes the dual purpose of the workers’ compensation system – providing benefits promptly to injured employees in a cost-effective manner and minimizing costly litigation. Council also recognizes that the City’s self -insurance program is a cost-efficient method to insure workers’ compensation and that government intervention or taxation can negatively impact the City. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports improving administrative efficiency of the Division of Workers’ Compensation. 2. Opposes increased insurance premium costs to employers. 3. Opposes administrative burdens or taxes to self-insurance programs. 4. Supports limits to insurance claim litigation. 5. Opposes limiting the City’s options and ability to manage workers’ compensation claims; including actions like removing existing off-sets to workers’ compensation benefits or limiting the City’s ability to designate treating physicians. 6. Opposes efforts to presumptively expand workers’ compensation coverage to illnesses or injuries that are not work related. 17 TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY The City actively promotes the safety and ease of traveling to, from and throughout the community using a variety of modes of transportation. Additionally, the City’s policy is to encourage the use of alternative transportation whenever appropriate. Therefore, the City: 1. Opposes reductions to the present allocation formula of 60 percent state, 22 percent counties, and 18 percent municipalities for Highway User Tax Fund (HUTF) or any appropriations from the state using the same formula. 2. Supports alternative methods of funding transportation infrastructure needs. 3. Support funding the analysis and implementation of inter- and intra-regional transit linkages, including future commuter rail connectivity. 4. Encourages flexibility in federal funding and regulations in order to better meet the needs of small to medium-size communities. 5. Supports guaranteed levels of federal funding for transportation and allocation of all federal motor fuel taxes and other federal transportation trust funds for their intended transportation purposes. 6. Supports broadening the definition of the gasoline tax to a “fuel tax” that encompasses other fuel options as they become more prevalent. 7. Supports enhanced ability to implement railroad quiet zones in municipalities and a reduction in train horn decibel and duration requirements. 8. Opposes divesting highway roads in urban areas from the state and making them the sole responsibility of local jurisdictions. 9. Supports safe operation of railroads through timely track inspections, joint training and communication between railroad and emergency personnel, and the use of safe equipment. 10. Supports funding for the build out of Interstate 25 improvements, which may include a ballot measure. 11. Opposes reductions in federal dollars for alternate travel modes. URBAN RENEWAL AND DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC HEALTH The state of Colorado has empowered local authorities to use Urban Renewal Authorities to encourage revitalization and the elimination of blight. The main funding tool for URA is Tax 18 Increment Financing (TIF) generated through property taxes. In its best intention, urban renewal restores economic vitality and improves the safety of a designated area , with limited financial impact to other government jurisdictions Therefore, the City: 1. Opposes limitations on municipalities’ ability to utilize financing mechanisms such as TIF or Metro Districts. 2. Opposes efforts to allow non-City jurisdictions to have influence over the use of TIF within City limits 3. Supports maintaining the ability of downtown development authorities to utilize urban renewal tools. WATER, WASTEWATER, AND STORMWATER ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH; SAFE COMMUNITY The City operates a water, wastewater, and stormwater utility in a financially sound, reliable, safe, and environmentally acceptable manner. The availability of water supplies is critical to this mission and is managed by both the Water Demand and Supply Policy, and the Water Efficiency Plan. Therefore, the City: 1. Supports expanding the authority delegated to the state to administer federally mandated water, stormwater and wastewater environmental regulatory programs . 2. Supports reasonable water quality regulations that are cost effective and can show identifiable benefits. 3. Supports municipal flexibility to manage in-stream flows to preserve or improve the natural environment of the stream while protecting the integrity of Colorado’s appropriation doctrine and City water supply. 4. Opposes unfunded mandates 5. Opposes barriers to financing for water conservation projects. 6. Supports funding for the recovery and treatment of the Cache la Poudre and other waterways impacted by natural disasters. 7. Supports enhanced municipal authority to protect and increase the flexibility and resiliency of its water supply under Colorado’s appropriation doctrine without adversely affecting in-stream flows or the natural environment of the stream. 8. Supports streamlining federal and state permitting requirements for water development projects that increase coordination between permitting agencies, reduces administrative 19 and financial burdens on permit applicants, and ensures robust and enforceable environmental protections. 9. Supports the enlargement of Halligan Reservoir as a common-sense, cost-effective, and environmentally beneficial approach to meet Fort Collins’ future water supply needs. 20 CITY OF FORT COLLINS LEGISLATIVE CONTACTS Legislative Review Committee Name District/Title Email Phone Councilmember Ken Summers District 3 ksummers@fcgov.com (970) 221-6878 Councilmember Bob Overbeck District 1 boverbeck@fcgov.com (970) 221-6917 Councilmember Ray Martinez District 2 raymartinez@fcgov.com (970) 690 3686 Jeff Mihelich Deputy City Manager jmihelich@fcgov.com (970) 416-2899 Carrie Daggett City Attorney cdaggett@fcgov.com (970) 416-2463 Ginny Sawyer Tyler Marr Legislative Staff gsawyer@fcgov.com tmarr@fcgov.com (970) 224-6094 (970) 416-4205 Legislative Staff Liaison Members Topic Area Name Title Email Phone Affordable Housing and Social Sustainability Beth Sowder Social Sustainability Director bsowder@fcgov.com (970) 221-6752 Air Quality Cassie Archuleta Environmental Program Manager carchuleta@fcgov.com Cable Television Franchise Carson Hamlin Cable Television Manager chamlin@fcgov.com (970) 221-6510 Climate Lindsay Ex Environmental Program Manager lex@fcgov.com (970)224-6143 Environmental Protection Lucinda Smith Environmental Services Director lsmith@fcgov.com (970) 224-6085 Elections, Liquor and Marijuana Licensing Delynn Coldiron City Clerk dcoldiron@fcgov.com (970) 416-2995 Cultural Services, Parks and Recreation Mike Calhoon Director of Parks mcalhoon@fcgov.com (970) 416-2079 Energy Tim McCollough John Phelan Light and Power Operations Manager Resource Conservation Manager tmccollough@fcgov.com jphelan@fcgov.com (970) 416-2622 (970) 416-2539 Finance Mike Beckstead Chief Financial Officer mbeckstead@fcgov.com (970) 221-6795 Economic Health Josh Birks Economic Health Director jbirks@fcgov.com (970) 221-6324 Fire Protection and Hazardous Materials Mgmt Bob Poncelow Division Chief, Poudre Fire Authority bponcelow@poudre- fire.org (970) 416-2871 21 Legislative Staff Liaison Members Human Resources Janet Miller Assistant Human Resources Director jamiller@fcgov.com (970) 221-6826 Legal Carrie Daggett City Attorney cdaggett@fcgov.com (970) 416-2463 Natural Areas, Open Lands and Cache la Poudre River Issues John Stokes Natural Resources Director jstokes@fcgov.com (970) 221-6263 Building Services Russ Hovland Chief Building Official rhovland@fcgov.com (970) 416-2341 Planning and Land Use Tom Leeson Community Development and Neighborhood Services Director tleeson@fcgov.com (970) 221-6287 Public Safety Greg Yeager Deputy Chief gyeager@fcgov.com (970) 416-2185 Recycling and Solid Waste Susie Gordon Environmental Program Manager sgordon@fcgov.com (970) 221-6265 Risk Management Kelly Bernish Safety, Security, and Risk Management Director kbernish@fcgov.com (970) 221-6774 Stormwater Matt Fater Water Engineering Field Operations Manager mfater@fcgov.com (970) 221-6671 Transportation Mark Jackson Planning, Development and Transportation Deputy Director mjackson@fcgov.com (970) 416-2029 Utilities Customer Service Lisa Rosintoski Utility Customer Connections Manager lrosintoski@fcgov.com (970) 416-2432 Water Supply and Quality Carol Webb Water Resource and Treatment Operations Manager cwebb@fcgov.com (970) 221-6231 1 State Priorities Introduction Fort Collins is a community of 167,000 residents located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains along Colorado’s Front Range. Incorporated in 1873, the City has grown to become the commercial, educational and cultural hub of Northern Colorado. The City adopted a home rule charter in 1954 and operates under a Council-Manager form of government. The City is a data-driven municipal organization that strives to fulfill its mission, “Exceptional service for an exceptional community,” through a vision of providing world-class municipal services through operational excellence and a culture of innovation. City leaders seek innovative solutions to issues facing the community and are often willing to leverage emerging technologies. The Fort Collins City Council annually adopts Legislative Priorities and a Legislative Policy Agenda the purpose of guiding legislators and staff in supporting community goals. The City’s Legislative Priorities are broad issues Fort Collins is focused on and they may carry over year to year since they are more challenging issues that may take multi-year work to influence. The City works closely with the Colorado Municipal League and other regional partners to leverage resources and participate in regional dialogue to achieve shared outcomes. The Policy Agenda and Priorities identify specific City Council-adopted goals associated with the policy objectives and statements. This alignment is important for City staff to ensure that advocacy supports specific desired outcomes. Objective: Support local control and home rule Issue: The City of Fort Collins fundamentally supports and encourages local control and home rule which allows maximum flexibility and discretion in the implementation of local policy, delivery of service, and municipal finance. The City will support all efforts and measures to preserve the authority of local municipalities while opposing efforts that unnecessarily or adversely affect the City’s ability to manage and operate pursuant to its home rule authority or that increase burdens upon the City. Objective: Support transportation infrastructure connectivity with an emphasis on funding an integrated, multi-modal system Issue: Funding for vital transportation infrastructure will continue to be a high priority for the City of Fort Collins. Transportation infrastructure is a critical element to supporting community and regional economic health, safety and quality of life. Actions that may expedite the continued improvement and expansion of northern sections of I-25 include: 2  A Transportation Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANS) bond II ballot initiative (TRANS bonds were previously used to help fund the $1.67 billion T-REX I-25 improvements in the south Denver Metro area)  State of Colorado General Fund dollars going to transportation (maintenance & capital construction)  Tax credit legislation for specific highway projects A key transportation funding priority for Fort Collins is Interstate 25 (I-25) in Northern Colorado. Immediate funding to widen north I-25 is needed to sustain the region’s economic growth. The City is an active part of the I-25 Coalition whose primary goal is to accelerate construction of a third lane in each direction of I-25 as identified in the I-25 North Project (from State Highway 6 to State Highway 14). Colorado Department of Transportation recently received TIGER grant funding for I-25 improvements. This, in combination with local match commitments, private sector funds, and other scheduled funds, has accelerated improvements in Northern Colorado by fifteen years. Improvements between SH-14 and SH-402 are welcomed and sizeable funding gaps remain in terms of needed I-25 improvements between SH-402 and SH-66. Objective: Support efforts to address increased availability and access to mental and behavioral health systems. Issue: The City of Fort Collins strives to be a welcoming and inclusive community for all, including residents who may be experiencing the challenges of homelessness, mental health issues, addiction, depression, and other challenging life situations. The City is not a direct provider of social services or healthcare, however, the City works closely with community partners to reduce homelessness and to increase access to needed services. These needs are persistent in our community and in the region. Increased data collection, collaboration, and regional solutions are needed to impact these issues. The City is committed to supporting increased coordination of all partners, the creation of a regional detox facility, greater access to mental health services, and a coordinated regional approach to suicide prevention/intervention. Objective: Support efforts to ensure regional resiliency and achieve Climate Action Plan goals Issue: Making communities more resilient to disaster and the effects of a changing climate has become more important to Colorado communities over the last several years as natural disasters have caused significant human and property loss. Making Fort Collins and Northern Colorado more resilient involves providing decision-makers hazard mitigation analysis and scientific data to inform investment in effective and complementary infrastructure systems. Resilience must be a regional effort that pays off through c oordinated advanced planning and investment. 3 Resiliency efforts impact a broad set of critical services including utility operations, transportation infrastructure, emergency response, and disaster recovery. Fort Collins has adopted aggressive emission reduction goals and supports policies and legislation that help achieve these goals, gather scientific data and investments in needed infrastructure to ensure a clean energy future. The City acknowledges the role that state legislation can, and should, play in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, criteria pollutants, and waste through policies, legislation, incentives, and other mechanisms. Objective: Support comprehensive water resource management Issue: Water resources in Colorado and throughout the West are stressed by many factors. Local water resource planning efforts ensure adequate supply to residents through managing the City’s water rights portfolio, encouraging increased efficiency and expanding storage. Fort Collins supports efforts to address local and regional water needs, preserve its water rights portfolio, and to encourage conservation of water resources. The conservation of water resources extends to support for Cache la Poudre River restoration projects. Fort Collins will participate in implementation of the Colorado Water Plan by the Legislature and any State agencies, rulemakings by water-related State agencies, and the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ and Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rulemakings affecting water storage, use, quality and conservation. Objective: Support a comprehensive approach to reduce the impacts of poverty and housing affordability Issue: Poverty and lack of affordable housing are on-going issues in Fort Collins and across Colorado. The City is interested in developing local and regional solutions to these persistent problems through collaboration and innovation. The City plays both a convening and leadership role among the many community service providers – seeking to foster sustainable solutions to complex social issues through a combination of City involvement and leadership. Fort Collins supports collaborative solutions that may include:  Fully resource a state affordable housing fund  Implement funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit  Develop or expand programs that ensure a smooth transition from foster care to independence  Increase funding for mental and behavioral health care/programs  Pilot innovative programs to address housing Objective: Support local control of oil and gas operations 4 Issue: Fort Collins, like many other Colorado communities, has taken steps to reduce potential environmental and public health issues related to oil and gas production and development. Locally, current oil and gas development occurs in close proximately to residential units and transported emissions from oil and gas operations outside of City limits have been demonstrated to contribute to ozone formation. Both regional and local efforts will be required to limit negative impacts of continued oil and gas development in the region. Fort Collins seeks the following:  Increased local flexibility to regulate oil and gas related activity within its incorporated borders and Growth Management Area.  Limiting the proximity of large-scale oil and gas sites to the City limits in order to minimize regional impacts.  Greater understanding and control of air emissions from extraction processes and production equipment; including air emissions transported from outside of our community.  Enhanced right for communities to regulate oil and gas as an industrial practice and therefore apply local zoning practices to operators. CML POLICY COMMITTEE – OCTOBER 13, 2017 Member Proposal Request for CML-initiated Legislation – City of Edgewater Beer & Liquor: Authority to Replace Lost Liquor License The City of Edgewater is requesting CML initiate a bill seeking liquor licensing authority for cities/towns under 10,000 in population to issue liquor licenses in the case of a license ending or being transferred out of that city/town. (Attachment 1) “The bill itself will allow for the issuance of a new/replacement license any time that a community of less than 10,000 was to lose a license for any reason. This is currently not the case due to changes imposed by SB 197 which broadened licensing for grocers and pharmacies, but severely restricted the ability of cities/towns to issue licenses. This , of course, could include closure of a business, loss of a lease, sale to a party in another community, redevelopment, death or illness, fire, or a natural disaster (tornado, flood, hail storm, etc.). Our current statute does not allow for this replacement license and small communities could experience a significant economic impact to their sales tax base if such a business was lost and that community was not able to be replace the license. This is not intended to impact or interfere with large grocers’ transition into the liquor sales business.” Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Page | 2 Action Items Affordable Housing: Construction Defects Given that legislation was passed in 2017 to spur the construction of owner occupied housing, staff does not expect legislation in 2018. However, there was an attempt to preempt local construction defect ordinances in 2017 which was defeated. The City of Thornton submitted a requested change to the CML Policy Statement with language opposing any legislation that attempts to preempt local authority regarding construction defects. Since changes to the Policy Statement must first be recommended to the full membership, which votes on the Policy Statement at the Annual Business Meeting, the city requested CML to take a position in line with the request. Staff recommendation: Oppose. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Affordable Housing: Increase in Documentary Fee Currently, for real estate purchases over $500, the county clerk a one cent documentary fee for every $100. Legislation was introduced in 2017 that increased the documentary fee to two cents every one hundred dollars. That legislation did not pass last year and is expected to be introduced in 2018. The additional one cent would be deposited in an affordable housing fund in the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). The fund is expected to raise $10 million annually, if approved. Staff recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Affordable Housing: Homeless Right to Rest Act Denver Homeless Out Loud and the American Civil Liberties Union will again intr oduce a version of the “Colorado Right to Rest Act.” The legislation attempts to apply certain rights to the homeless and would preempt the adoption and enforcement of certain municipal ordinances. CML has been twice successful in defeating this legislation. Denver Homeless Out Loud plans to reintroduce the bill in the 2018 legislati ve session. Staff recommendation: Oppose. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Beer & Liquor: Special Event Permit A change in Colorado Liquor Rules in 2012 allowed for the operation of special event permits by municipalities and special districts, as well for special event permits for educational purposes. Some municipalities have since operated special events under that authority. The Liquor Enforcement Division (LED) now believes that the underlying statutes do not allow for the more expansive rule and have thus proposed rescinding the rule. Staff is requesting support for CML-initiated legislation that would clarify the statute, allowing the rule to remain unchanged and municipalities to continue operating special events. Staff recommendation: CML-initiated legislation. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Page | 3 Beer & Liquor: Fermented Malt Beverage Licenses In the wake of SB 16-197, a task force was required to be formed to analyze several aspects of the landmark legislation, including the transition on January 1, 2019 allowing fermented malt beverage (FMB) licensees, otherwise known as “3.2 licenses,” to sel l full strength malt liquor. The task force began meeting over a year ago and recommendations of the members were recently voted on, and the final results be presented to the General Assembly in January. One of the issues the League focused on was the potential proximity of convenience stores and possibly grocery stores to schools, since there is no distance restriction on FMB licenses. Staff deemed it politically infeasible to propose any retroactive solution but did submit a proposal that, at a minimum, would put distance restrictions on new FMB licenses issued after 1/1/19 and allow the local licensing authority to deny a license based on the determination of an undue concentration of other FMB licenses, retail liquor stores, or liquor licensed drug stores. While the many issues related to SB 197 interpretation and implementation are shifting sands, staff believes enough support for bill can be cobbled together to ensure public safety and appropriate application of local control to new FMB licenses . Staff recommendation: CML-initiated legislation. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Beer & Liquor: Modification of Alcohol Beverage Tastings Statute Part of the requirements placed on the SB 197 Task Force (mentioned above) was to also examine the current alcohol beverage tastings (tastings) statute. There were proposals in 2016 to force changes into SB 197, but CML objected to potential loss of local control and suggested the task force route. The final recommendation out of the task force to the legislature is for modest modifications to the law that would allow for more days and more hours for tastings to occur but would not impair local control over the final determination. Other provisions in the recommendation were supported by staff on the task force. Should legislation be introduced to implement the recommendations, the League’s support would be meaningful. Staff recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Elections: Nomination Committees Each year, the Statutory Revision Committee solicits statutory clean -up ideas. This year, the municipal clerks brought forward an idea to remove three unnecessary subsections in the Municipal Election Code of 1965 (title 31, Article 10) regarding the nominating committee process for dealing with vacancies in nomination when a potential municipal election official withdraws from candidacy. Such a vacancy occurs when someone decides, after filing a nomination petition and having that petition certified, that he/she no longer wishes to run for municipal office. The statutes provide that if a vacancy committee has been designated on the petition (this is a “may” designate, rather than “must/shall”), then that committee is notified of the candidate’s Page | 4 withdrawal. However, the statute does not statute require the vacancy committee to fill that vacancy (and, to our knowledge, a committee filling a vacant nomination has never happened). These provisions are probably modeled after state partisan vacancy committees, whose charge is to actually vote on someone to fill a vacancy, whe ther in nomination or in office. The statutory nomination committee process for municipal candidate petitions is an unused process and causes confusion for both municipal clerks and candidates. Staff recommendation: Staff discretion to support. Lobbyist: Dianne Criswell Lottery: Reauthorization of the Division of Lottery Legislation will be introduced in 2018 to reauthorize the Division of Lottery in the Department of Revenue. Per the Colorado Constitution, the lottery funds parks and recreation and open space projects all over Colorado. Many municipalities have received conservation trust fund dollars as well as grants through Great Outdoors Colorado. The Division of Lottery is scheduled to sunset in 2024 and staff is recommending support of legislation to reauthorize it. Staff is also recommending that the Policy Committee refer a resolution supporting the lottery to the CML Board of Directors for adoption (Attachment 2). Staff recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Marijuana: Statutory cleanup on sale of marijuana to out of state residents HB 16-1261 amended CRS 12-43.4-402 (3) (a) by repealing (II), which previously restricted the sale to out-of-state residents to ¼ ounce of marijuana or its equivalent in marijuana products. However, the legislation failed to repeal the related unlawful act from the appropriate section the law, 12-43.4-901 (f) that states it is a crime to sell more than ¼ ounce to an out-of-state resident. Even though the unlawful act is not being enforced, it is still a conflict within the retail marijuana code. In lieu of an official member request for CML-initiated legislation, the Town of Crestone has requested the League seek an opportunity in any marijuana legislation in 2018 to make this clarification. Staff believes the sponsor of HB 1261 would be amenable to do that, as he is likely to carry additional bills in 2018. Staff recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Oil and Gas: Facilities Distance from School Property Last session, CML supported legislation that clarified the setback requirement for oil and gas operations from schools. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission require oil and gas production facilities and wells to be located at least 1,000 feet from school buildings. Proposed legislation clarified that the minimum 1,000 foot distance from which newly permitted oil and gas production facilities and wells must be located from any school applies to the school property line and not the school building. The bill further clarified that it does not apply if a school commences operations near oil and gas facilities or wells that are already actively in use or Page | 5 permitted. Similar legislation is expected in 2018. Staff Recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Morgan Cullen Oil and Gas: Compensation for Mineral Interests For the past three sessions, legislation has been introduced that specifies that a local government that bans hydraulic fracturing of an oil and gas well is liable to the mineral interest owner for the value of the mineral interest and that a local government that enacts a moratorium on oil and gas activities shall compensate oil and gas operators, mineral lessees, and royalty owners for all costs, damages and losses of fair market value. CML has consistently opposed this legislation and recommends that we oppose the legislation again in 2018. Staff Recommendation: Oppose. Lobbyist: Morgan Cullen Pensions & Retirement: FPPA Employee History Health Data This proposed legislation will allow FPPA to implement an electronic statewide health history form, rather than requiring employees to fill out a paper form. In addition, the legislation would close a gap on preexisting conditions omitted from completed health history form. Currently, employees that fail to disclose a preexisting condition upon hire have to be shown to have done so fraudulently in order for FPPA to deny death and disability payments if the condition causes the death or disabling condition. The change would protect the vitality of the plan by ensuring any applicable omission is able to be considered by FPPA in determining the appropriate application of benefits . Staff recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Pensions & Retirement: FPPA Simplified Reentry into Defined Benefit Plan This proposed legislation will allow an employer to enroll new employees in the FPPA defined benefit system, should the employer choose to affiliate with FPPA . Existing employees can stay in their existing plan. The bill also s implifies statutory process for local money purchase (defined contribution) department to join FPPA. Staff recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Pensions & Retirement: PERA Over the last year, there has been greater attention to ongoing fiscal issues of the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA). League staff has been participating in a local government employers advisory council, which will meet again once more before the end of the year. 26 municipalities are members of PERA. CML has reserved taking action on previous legislation, depending on the situation, but recent developments create some concern. The PERA Board recently voted to support the following changes (Attachment 3): 1. Increasing contribution rates from employees (3%) and employers (2%) Page | 6 2. Modifying benefits, including raising the minimum age for full service retirement eligibility to 65 and reducing the COLA as well as suspending the COLA for several years 3. Aligning contributions, service credit and benefits by changing key definitions for “service credit accrual” and “PERA-includable salary” While there is a long way to go before any PERA recommendations are introduced as legislation, the employer contribution increase alone is highly problematic. If adopted, municipal employers would see their contributions go up to a total of 15.7%. However, some of the benefits modifications would help the stability of the overall plan. Depending on what is proposed, staff would like to be able to weigh in appropriately with the input of affected municipal employers. Staff recommendation: Staff discretion. Lobbyists: Kevin Bommer, Dianne Criswell Public Safety: Red Light Cameras and Speed Radar Since the Governor vetoed HB 16-1231, which was a prohibition on the use of red light cameras, CML expects that similar legislation will be introduced to prohibit the use of both red light cameras and speed radar in 2018. Staff recommendation: Oppose Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Sales and Use Taxes: Sales Tax Task Force HB 17-1266 created the legislative Sales Tax Task Force. At the third meeting of the Task Force on September 15th, Representative Lang Sias, R- Arvada, moved the only Task Force legislative proposal (which was in the form of a request to staff to draft). The proposal is a bill directing the Department of Revenue to issue a request for information to vendors for:  An accurate address locator database;  A single application and point for state & local sales tax licenses;  A single point of state and local sales tax remittance;  An accurate taxability matrix;  A solution that integrates with existing systems; and  Costing options. Vendors must respond with the understanding that:  There will not be changes to the tax base (and rate);  There may not be uniform definitions; and  There will not be a unified audit authority or process. Many of our self-collecting home rule municipalities are interested in technological solutions to address simplification. However, all self -collecting home rules must maintain their constitutional authority to set their tax policy and administration locally. Page | 7 Therefore, any proposals from the state legislature need to be evaluated carefully to determine if there are any direct or indirect impacts on local control. CML staff consults with the tax administrators on the CML Sales Tax Committee when evaluating these proposals. This bill could provide useful information about cost and feasibility, so long as it calls for that information in ways that do not threaten home rule aut hority. The Task Force will entertain a motion to recommend the bill at its final meeting on November 1st. Staff recommendation: Staff discretion to support. Lobbyist: Dianne Criswell Telecommunications (Broadband): Preemption of Local Authority Toward the end of the 2017 session, several incumbent providers were supportive of draft legislation that would have tied any new funds available from the state high cost fund (HCF) for broadband deployment to preemptions on local government authority granted under SB 152. That legislation granted specific authority for municipalities and counties to own and/or operate broadband infrastructure with approval of voters. Nearly 70 municipalities and 30 counties have granted such approval, although nearly all l ocal governments are looking to partner with the private sector whenever possible. While the League has been supportive of freeing up HCF dollars for broadband deployment, staff believes this can never be tied to preemptions that take authority away from l ocal governments. Staff recommendation: Oppose unless amended. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Transportation: Preemption of Local Establishment of Trucking Routes The Colorado Motor Carriers Association has submitted a legislative request to the Transportation Legislative Review Committee (TLRC) to create a statewide process and procedure for the designation of truck routes in Colorado. The proposed legislation would set up procedures for notification of pending action by local government to designate a truck route, require proper signage of a truck route and would stipulate a uniform fine structure for violations. Staff Recommendation: Oppose. Lobbyist: Morgan Cullen Water & Wastewater: Connected Municipality Use Proposed legislation in the Water Resources Review Committee would allow water rights that were previously changed for municipal water supply in one system to be used in an interconnected system without having to acquire water court approval. Draft legislation includes various terms to insure this would not injure other water rights, including the other water rights of municipalities. The proposal could be beneficial to municipalities by facilitating water sharing agreements between municipal water providers, such as utilities and districts, by significantly lowering transaction costs and risks that come with the water court process. Agreements could also allow such Page | 8 providers to use water more efficiently, build redundancy and reliability into their systems. Staff Recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Morgan Cullen Water: Expanded Duration for CWRPDA Revolving Loans Pursuant to the federal clean water act and the federal “Safe Water Drinking Act”, the Colorado water resources and power development authority mak es loans under its water pollution control revolving fund and its drinking water revolving fund. Under state law, the duration of any water pollution control loan made by the authority must not exceed 20 years after a projects completion. However, the fede ral clean water act now allows for loans up to the lesser of 30 years or the projected useful life of the project, as determined by the state. Proposed legislation submitted to the Water Resources Review Committee would remove the 20-year limitation on water pollution control loans and authorizes the authority to make loans in compliance with the clean water act and the “Safe Water Drinking Act.” Staff Recommendation: Support. Lobbyist: Morgan Cullen Page | 9 Information items Marijuana: On Premise Consumption Staff recently received a proposed draft of legislation for 2017 that would allow for “accessory consumption permits” connected with medical marijuana center license or a retail marijuana license for the purposes of consuming marijuana products, other than smoking. (The draft recognizes and does not attempt to alter the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act) The draft includes provisions for local opt-in, as opposed to opt-out. In municipalities that allow accessory permits, however, means of approval of individual applications problematically mirrors the manner in which beer or distillery tasting rooms or tap houses are approved, in that the state is the only decider. While the state may consider a request from the local authority to deny an application, the state is not bound to the request. The language from the tasting room statute is appropriate because they are only licensed by the state, but that is not appropriate for dually -licensed marijuana establishments. Since the bill is only a first draft at this time, staff would like to continue to talk with the proponents and bring a recommendation to the Policy Committee in December. Lobbyist: Kevin Bommer Municipal Courts: ACLU Working Group The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and municipal judges continue to meet to discuss potential criminal justice reforms. Staff does not expect legislation in 2018 aimed directly at municipal courts outside of funding HB 16 -1309 through a grant program in DOLA. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Oil and Gas: Governor’s 7-point Plan Last August, in response to the recent tragedy in Firestone and Meade, Colorado, Governor Hickenlooper submitted a seven-point plan to address public safety regulations in and around oil and gas facilities in Colorado. Some of the Governor’s proposals can be implemented through new rule making within the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) and some will require legislation. Some of the noteworthy proposals the administration put forward are the plugging of abandoned and orphan wells, enhanced participation of 8-1-1, a methane detection monitor rebate program, phase out of low pressure test exemptions and third-party safety audits. Lobbyist: Morgan Cullen Open Records: Open Data Senator John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, has indicated that he may introduce legislation to reach the “open data” issue that was left unaddressed in his bill from last year, SB 17-040. Although there may be some requesters who believe that data is subject to Page | 10 the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), the custodial community continues to interpret the provisions of CORA as being focused on records. Therefore, we expect to see some sort of legislative proposal but do not yet have details. Lobbyist: Dianne Criswell Public Safety: Healthcare Costs for Persons in Custody CML staff has convened a working group with municipal attorneys, the public safety community and hospital representatives. The goal is to identify opportunities to mitigate costs for municipalities when they are given the bill for an individual who needed healthcare while in custody. CML staff is identifying the scope of the problem to see whether the issue can be dealt with through contracting or a legislative solution is necessary. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Public Safety: Implementation of HB 17-1313 Despite opposition from the public safety community, the Gov. Hickenlooper signed HB 17-1313, which impacted civil asset forfeiture authority. In his signing statement, the governor created a task force to implement the legislation and fix confusion surrounding the state civil asset forfeiture process and the legislation’s reporting requirements. There have now been three meetings, and one of the issues that has come up is the inclusion of local public ordinances in HB 17-1313. Staff is currently researching the full application of applying HB 17-1313 to forfeiture-like procedures at the local level, and will likely have several recommendations around civil asset forfeiture legislation at the December meeting. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Public Safety: FirstNet Through the creation of the National Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), there is now movement to make a comprehensive network for first responders a reality. The federal body overseeing this network is called the First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet). Each state, including Colorado, created a FirstNet Governing Body to lead the state’s efforts to plan, develop and support deployment of th e NPSBN in partnership with the FirstNet. The governing body and first responders around the state are currently contemplating the best path toward broad, high -quality public safety communications. Colorado is now faced with making one of three choices. The state can opt in to the national model provided by FirstNet and their chosen vendor AT&T, the state can opt out of the national model and look at other options or vendors, or the state can choose to put resources elsewhere and do nothing. The governor will ultimately make the decision with input from the Colorado FirstNet Governing Body. On September 29, the governor received notice from FirstNet on the delivery of the final state plan, which triggered the 90-day review period. The governor’s decision is due by December 28. Lobbyist: Meghan Dollar Page | 11 State Budget: State Economy Forecast & Budget Impacts Based on the most recent economic forecast by Legislative Council, the state and national economies will continue to grow at a moderate and steady pace through 2019. However, the positives of economic growth and low unemployment are tempered by risk and/or uncertainty. Based on its forecast, Legislative Council views that t he economy is at or near capacity, meaning there is little room for additional growth. The Federal Reserve has indicated that it will incrementally increase interest rates, a course of action that may suppress spending and investment. Finally, state and national economies could be adversely impacted by major policy changes or course of national or international events. For the state, legislative actions taken in the 2017 session provide near-term budgetary benefits. SB 17-267 moved the hospital provider fee revenues into an ente rprise fund and adjusted the Referendum C cap. As a result, the state’s revenues starting in state fiscal year 2016-2017 through 2017-2020 will fall short of the Referendum C cap. Since TABOR refunds are only required when state revenues exceed the cap, this means that there is less likelihood that the General Assembly will be tempted to pay for these refunds with our severance taxes. Lobbyist: Dianne Criswell