Thread by @shayshinecastle

Hey, hey hey, it's city council night once again. I'm sure you're glued to your screens after last week's big meeting.

Tonight we have highly anticipated discussion/decision over the proposed open space tax council will place on the ballot. boulderbeat.news/2019/07/25/cou…

And another ballot measure: A down payment assistance program for middle-income earners. boulderbeat.news/2019/07/26/bou…

And, something I haven't written about yet but just as interesting: A possible historic landmark of a building over the owner's objections. Interesting bc another one is being considered now, Marpa House. thedenverchannel.com/news/local-new…

If council decides to landmark 940 North Street over the owner's wishes, it will only be the 6th time Boulder has done so since 1980, according to notes from the Landmarks Board.

We're also going to have more discussion of possible tobacco taxes, though the public hearing for that wrapped last week. boulderbeat.news/2019/08/17/bou…

I'm lacking my usual verve after finding out the Boulder County Dems aren't letting press into the Truman Dinner this year with AOC.

But I'll try to jazz it up for you.

Getting a little bit of a late start as council members trickle in. A fairly full house tonight; lots of supporters of Longs Gardens here. That's one of the options being considered for the open space tax: a one-year extension of a .15 sales tax to pay for a conservation easement

Brockett is absent tonight.

Forgot to say this, but Jones is addressing now: The tobacco tax issue will only be discussed *if* time allows. The other ordinances (age limit, flavor ban) is not being discussed tonight; those will happen in September.

First up is a presentation by David Gross, on the annual audit done on the city's finances.

The auditors have a "clean opinion" of Boulder's finances and bookkeeping. BUT they found "significant deficiencies and material weaknesses" in the city's IT practices.

I found this kinda interesting, so I've summarized it in my notes. Four major issues were identified.

1. “Critical policies, standards, guidelines and procedures have not been documented or updated to reflect the current operating environment as the foundation for protecting non-public information and information technology assets.”

I wish I could interpret that for you, but I can't.

The auditors recommend the city establish a Business Continuity Plan and a Data Classification Plan.

“Implementing these practices will reinforce consistent performance and establishing expectations to mitigate the risk of unacceptable use of technology, unauthorized disclosure, misuse, alteration, destruction or other compromise of data," the report said.

The city is working on it, according to the manager’s response: biz continuity planning will conclude in 2019.

“Several city working groups, including Central Records, the IT Transformation Program and the IT Security program are starting to collaborate on modernization of the City’s data policies.”

Issue No. 2: The city is running unsupported operating systems, including Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. “Microsoft no longer provides security updates, therefore, as new vulnerabilities are discovered the operating system will not be patched to protect against an exploit.”

Gross on these 4 deficiencies: 2 years ago, there were 14. Last year, there were 7. So the city is moving in the right direction.

Anyway, back to issue No. 2. The auditors recommend retiring all unsupported systems. If it’s not feasible in the short term, it should be used only when needed, not allowed to connect to the internet.
City is aware, but the systems are necessary to operating “critical services.”

But it's in the process of retiring all of them over the next couple of years.

Issue No. 3: 3. User accounts. When an employee leaves (voluntarily or not), a list is sent out bi-weekly to the IT dept so their access to accounts can be revoked.

But the list is incomplete and too infrequent, auditors say.

“Significant delays can result in the time a user is terminated and the time IT and application system owners are notified of the departure.”
Auditors recommend establishing a more “structured” and “timely” process and procedure for notifications.

“This will reduce the risk of user accounts that are not disabled at the appropriate time from network resources and applications due to either voluntary resignation or involuntary termination resulting in unauthorized or inappropriate activity.”

There is a nightly, manual procedure for this, the city said in response. But a long-term plan is needed.

The final issue: Similarly, the process for creating new user accounts is not structured. Auditors recommend creating a process and “consider establishing a list of 'authorized approvers' by area that have the authority to approve such requests.”

The city has a manual process, but it “is not automated and routinely results in errors and privilege creep.” A long-term plan is needed.

Overall, the city is doing a great job, Gross says.

Yates: I think this is the first year I'm aware of we didn't have any material deficiencies in our finances.

That's a wrap on that report; I may write something small up if I have time this week.

We're moving to open comment. 20 ppl signed up.

Lots of familiar names from the tobacco hearing last week.

Emotional testimony from Jennifer Jacobsen, whose sister in the hospital after an e-scooter accident.

dailycamera.com/2019/07/21/bou…

"All of our lives are completely changed," Jacobsen says. "I'm here so no other family has to go through our nightmare, and so no other parents will have to get a phone call in the middle of the night. Boulder doesn't need electric scooters. We're small enough."

"When the vote comes up, please vote against electric scooters. And please remember my sister when you vote."

That will be the next council, Mayor Jones says, apologizing to the family.

Carlisle: "This is why we're taking time to actually look before we open any doors."

Elizabeth Black is back explaining Colorado water law again. Truly amazing presentations; it's amazing.

I realize I used amazing twice in that last tweet. Ugh.

Lots of speakers on tobacco/vaping right now. I'm taking notes but not typing. The public hearing is closed, so legally, the city council can't use any of this testimony (or any emails, etc.) in their decision.

But clearly still a lot of passion around this.

Council keeps asking ppl to email, so apparently they are still taking in information and opinions. So email away, people.

Interesting testimony from Ava Anglin, a senior at Boulder High. “Vaping has surrounded me" during high school. "It’s far more than a silly teenage thing kids do on the weekends. Most kids can walk into stores on the Hill and purchase (products) without difficulty."

Only three of her friends don't vape. Many have tried to quit and "most of them fail. (They) need the city's help" to ban vaping, Anglin says.

Tracy Gilford testifying about the high rate of menthol use among kids of color.

Colorado's black youths are using flavored vaping products at twice the national rate, Gilford says. "We're leading, but not in a good way."

"It's time to protect the community and not the tobacco industry."

Bob Dyle: “Tobacco companies have never changed their strategy. The bottom line is addiction. ... This is not about helping people quit. This is about addiction and maintaining addiction to nicotine."

That's the end of open comment. We're getting an update on the muni: There's a status conference before the PUC tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Boulder and Xcel are still not in agreement over the list of property interests the city needs to acquire. "We've worked with them for 7 months" to get the list done, City Attorney Tom Carr says.

"We're going to argue tomorrow about the way Xcel has manipulated the process to delay it" and cost the city more money, Carr says.

Boulder is going to ask the commission to put pressure on Xcel to get it moving.

Carr also addresses the condemnation filing, which Xcel and PUC have both filed to dismiss.

"We have a big co. that is well-funded" trying to delay this.

Calls Xcel, PUC's motion to dismiss "a waste of money." The city has a "constitutional right" to condemn the company's assets in Boulder.

Nagle: "We need to stick together. We're leading the nation here. We're trailblazing." Likens the muni to the vaping fight against Big Tobacco.

Some dude just asked the Camera reporter to "take that outside." (His typing.) "It's a little annoying," the gentleman said.

OK, I'mma wrap this thread and start a new one for the public hearings.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks.

@threadreaderapp Actually, first, a q from Yates RE: The Knollwood annexation. Do they get to vote in the November election?

We don't know is the answer.

That was brought up bc it's on the consent agenda. A second reading and public hearing will (I assume) follow.

18.67 acres, zoned RE, will be added to the city
Residents voted 87.5% to 12.5% to annex

I just want to say that I didn't tag Sam Lounsberry, the Camera reporter, not bc we're fighting or anything. It's just annoying to be tagged in a bunch of tweets.

But can I just say about that dude who asked him to stop typing... What the eff. I'm gonna type louder now.

I'll add one more tweet: Council declining to call up two projects. Both related to historic properties. But Carlisle is talking a bit about the "chipping away" of the historic properties in town through alterations.