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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Read Before Packet - 2/16/2021 - Memorandum From Delynn Coldiron Re: Leadership Planning Team Minutes - February 16, 2021 City Clerk 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6515 970.221-6295 - fax fcgov.com/cityclerk MEMORANDUM DATE: February 16, 2021 TO: Mayor and Councilmembers FROM: Delynn Coldiron, City Clerk RE: Leadership Planning Team (LPT) Meeting Mayor Wade Troxell, Mayor Pro Tem Ross Cunniff, City Manager Darin Atteberry, Deputy City Manager Kelly DiMartino, Deputy City Manager Kyle Stannert, City Attorney Carrie Daggett, and City Clerk Delynn Coldiron (all by video-conference call) met on Tuesday, February 16, and the following summarizes the discussions that began at 7:06 a.m. February 16, 2021 Regular Meeting: Agenda items for the meeting were reviewed. • This Council meeting will be remote. Public participation for the meeting will be available in three ways: by phone, online through Zoom and by email. Spanish interpretation will be available tonight. It is expected that provisions for a legal defense fund and requesting that people reduce their energy consumption during the cold snap might be topics of public comment and follow up questions. Staff should be prepared to respond. If the energy consumption item comes up it will provide opportunity for staff to highlight the reliability of Fort Collins’ system. A representative from Platte River Power Authority may also be available to answer questions and provide additional information. • Staff Report – An additional item will be added under staff reports where the City Manager will formally recognize Lucinda Smith for her Clean Air Excellence Outstanding Individual Achievement award from the Environmental Protection Agency. She is receiving this for her decades of work at the City on air quality and climate programs. • Supplemental Appropriations for Year 2 of the Home2Health Project –This item is on the discussion agenda to allow Councilmember Gorgol to recuse herself. • Housing Strategic Plan – An email was received noting that the high cost of healthcare and medical costs reduces the amount of money individuals have to apply towards housing or other costs. The email suggested that this be added as a consideration under the Plan. It was noted that something related to this is included in the City’s legislative priorities. Staff should be prepared to speak to this tonight. Leadership Planning Team Meeting February 16, 2021 Page 2 of 6 • Plastics Pollution Code Change – There was a question about whether the ordinance language includes contingency language making the provisions effective only after state law is changed. This is one of two anticipated amendments noted in the agenda materials, including: o Removing the other types of plastic products that might be regulated in the future; and o Contingent language for state law. Council will consider these during tonight’s meeting. • Plastics and Hughes Ballot Measures – In order to reduce confusion related to the ballot, staff generally numbers ballot items only when there are multiple items within a specific category. For instance, because there are five Charter amendments moving forward in April, those items will be numbered. However, because there is only one Council referred measure (possibly) and only one citizen-initiated measure, those items will not be numbered. Adding numbering would likely add confusion by having three items listed as #1 when there are not multiple items within all categories. It should also be noted that the District Court Judge ordered the title of the Hughes ballot item without a number. It is not recommended that the Council deviate from the Court’s order. There was also a question related to the order of items on the ballot. Chapter 7, Article VIII, Section 7- 185(e) gives specifics on how the ballot items are to be ordered. This could be changed by Council approval; however, there is not sufficient time to do this prior to the April election. It was noted that this type of change should not occur so close to an election. Next steps related to the Hughes initiative litigation will be considered by Council at their upcoming executive session scheduled on March 2, 2021. • Motion to adjourn – The motion language will be updated to give more specifics about what Council will be considering – a resolution approving Ethics Opinion 2021-01. 6-Month Calendar: • March 2, 2021: o An executive session was added to the calendar to discuss the Hughes Stadium property initiative declaratory judgment ruling and the recent camping ruling. o Staff Report: Status Update on the Cache la Poudre Instream Flow project was added to the calendar. • March 16, 2021: o Wildfire Recovery Appropriation was added to the calendar. • April 27, 2021: o A special meeting for a Council Organization Meeting/Swearing In was added to the calendar. This is the earliest date this can be scheduled and will be the likely date if no recount is needed or requested. Leadership Planning Team Meeting February 16, 2021 Page 3 of 6 • May 11, 2021: o Water Supply Requirements and Allotments was added to the calendar (moved from April 27). City Clerk Coldiron: • No additional filings were received for Council candidates since last week. All candidates are now official, having submitted a sufficient nomination petition and financial disclosure statement. Official Candidates as of February 16, 2021 include: Mayor: o Jeni James Arndt o Gerry Horak o Molly Skold Councilmember District 1 o Susan Gutowsky o Nick Armstrong Councilmember District 3 o Tricia Canonico o Gavin Kaszynski Councilmember District 4 (two-year term to fill vacancy) o Jessica Dyrdahl o Erin Hottenstein o Shirley Peel o Melanie Potyondy o Sidna Rachid Councilmember District 5 o Kelly Ohlson o Jeff Hansen There was brief discussion about the withdrawal period and what happens if a candidate does not withdraw within that time. The withdrawal deadline is February 23, 2021. • Received an email from an individual who desired to run for Council but did not meet all of the requirements for a Council candidate. The Mayor thanked staff for working through this sensitive issue with her in a respectful yet diligent way. Deputy City Manager DiMartino: • Noted the Colorado Municipal League municipality caucus starts today. Staff will be scheduling a meeting with the Legislative Review Committee during the week of March 1. Leadership Planning Team Meeting February 16, 2021 Page 4 of 6 • Noted that in preparation for a potential return to hybrid meetings, staff is polling communities across the Front Range to determine how many have City Hall facilities open, as well as whether its Councils are meeting in a hybrid or remote format. This data, along with information from Governor Polis’ office and the Larimer County Health Director’s office will be used to inform Council so a decision can be made on when to return to hybrid Council meetings. There was support for this deliberate planning approach. City Attorney Daggett: • Noted the Ethics Review Board met on Friday related to Councilmember Potyondy’s request for an advisory opinion due to her spouse working in the City Attorney’s office as well as her employment with the Poudre School District (PSD). Generally, it was concluded that most items that were identified as potential concerns would not present conflicts, although there could be unusual instances where Councilmember Potyondy might need to declare a conflict, including any items where an actual financial or personal interest was raised. For Poudre School District items, it was determined that most would be unrelated to her role at PSD and would not result in a conflict for her. It was suggested that she get a formal acknowledgement from PSD related to this. Council will consider a related Resolution at the February 23, 2021 adjourned meeting. The idea of using conflicts management plans was suggested to help operationalize this. Further dialogue with the Ethics Review Board was suggested to consider further policy development about the use of conflicts management plans. On a related note, it was suggested that an “Other Disclosures” section be added to each Councilmember’s information on the City’s website used if Councilmembers want to voluntarily disclose and publish various things. It could be noted on the page that this information is being provided to ensure better governance and increase transparency. Management plans and letters from employers were noted as items a person might want to include. If desired, Council should discuss this under Other Business at the upcoming February 23 meeting and direct staff accordingly. • Asked about whether there were any remaining questions related to funding an additional attorney using existing General Fund appropriations. This relates to the Land Use Code updates that Council will consider tonight and the need for an additional attorney to help ensure adequate coverage for this and other high priority items. It was noted that staff will provide a follow up memo about funding this through existing appropriations. If there is interest in discussing this approach, Council Finance Committee may raise the issue or other discussion may be requested by Council. City Manager Atteberry: • Attended a recent PSD, City, County Liaison Committee meeting. There is a desire to make these meetings more intentional. One of the recent topics was how to better recognize neighborhood schools at Council meetings; this was a follow-up item raised by a Councilmember. This prompted discussion about the City/Colorado State University (CSU) Leadership committee and the CSU Liaison committee as it has been some time since either of these have met. The City Manager plans to reach out to appropriate CSU and CSU Systems staff to discuss. Leadership Planning Team Meeting February 16, 2021 Page 5 of 6 • Noted that in response to a request from CSU, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) discussed, at their last meeting, a request that the DDA sign a letter supporting the Hughes project. The DDA board asked DDA staff to prepare a letter reflecting the DDA’s interests. It is expected to be presented to the DDA board at their next meeting. The DDA board also discussed a preliminary design for a development proposal on Block 23 that will include a memory care facility and senior housing. This is the block directly north of the City’s Planning, Development & Transportation offices that housed the tire business and Taco Johns. Morning Star, the developer, is proposing a 4-story building that includes the memory care and senior housing elements. • Noted that Tom Gonzales attended the last Human Relations Commission meeting to provide them with information on COVID vaccines. The City Manager received a message from the board chair who noted how appreciative they were of the conversation and on the focus on equitable access that Mr. Gonzales presented. • Noted an RFP will be going out soon related to establishing a public/private partnership at the airport for the new terminal and related construction efforts. • Noted he and Mayor Troxell toured the Police Training Facility last week. A grand opening/ribbon- cutting event has been scheduled for March 5, 2021 from 2-4 p.m. The event is scheduled at the Northern Colorado Law Enforcement Training Center located at 5300 N. Boyd Lake Avenue in Loveland. The opening ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m. and light refreshments will be served. • Noted the digital equity webpage related to Connexion services is live. He added additional work continues between CityGive and Code for America that will provide additional resources. Any income qualified people we are aware of who live within an area that goes live are contacted directly about the lower rates available to them. Additional resources are expected for low-income broadband ratepayers through CARES2 funding as well. Staff is working to understand related requirements and will report back to Council related to this and the amount received once the information is available. Mayor Pro Tem Cunniff: • Noted he had a good meeting with the City Manager and Connexion staff regarding his experience with going live with the City’s broadband services. The City Manager noted his feedback was valuable. Mayor Pro Tem Cunniff was delighted with his recent experience of uploading many gigabytes of data into the cloud and the short timeframe required to do this. Mayor Troxell: • Participated in planning efforts for the upcoming strat ops meeting that is being developed for the airport. The strat ops meeting is scheduled for February 26-27, 2021. Leadership Planning Team Meeting February 16, 2021 Page 6 of 6 • Prepared some snippet videos for the Bloomberg Philanthropies eighth annual CityLab: Urban Solutions to Global Challenges conference coming up March 1-3. The video snippets were related to the biggest challenges the City is facing, including COVID. • Noted the opioid settlement discussions continue and thanked the City Attorney for her negotiation and involvement. The City Attorney noted she has been added to a group of attorneys who are discussing related legal issues and what the IGA structure needs to look like. The Colorado Municipal League is involved in these efforts as well. • Participated with the City Manager and Chief Swoboda in the Police Training Facility tour. He noted what a great facility this is and that it has been a good partnership between the Fort Collins and Loveland communities. • Participated in Jake Sherlock’s journalism class at CSU. The students are expected to attend tonight’s Council meeting and will be writing an article about Hughes and/or the Plastics items. Meeting adjourned at 9:29 a.m.