Thread by @shayshinecastle

Hey, ya'll. Couple of minutes away from #Boulder city council. They have an early start tonight (5:30) that I *think* they decided on yesterday. So apologies that it was wrong in my Sunday newsletter.

Everything is subject to change these days.

Like this: After last week's discussion in which a majority of council were leaning toward NOT appointing board and commission members, it's on the agenda for tonight.

Along with a COVID update and a discussion about what other normal business council should get up to for the foreseeable future. boulderbeat.news/2020/03/27/bou…

Our first late start of this new council as member Swetlik (typically the time keeper and driver of on-time starts) is struggling to access the remote software.

But Mayor Weaver is starting anyway.

Nagle is making an announcement.

Heidi Leatherwood, the former city clerk who just left for Erie, has Stage 2 breast cancer.

Fuck.

Sending healing vibes to Heidi, who I absolutely adore!

Second announcement, from the Mayor: The city is working on allowing remote public participation for the April 7 meeting. Stay tuned for details.

We're moving to board and commission appointments. WRAB is up first; council is doing essential ones first and maybe only those.

WRAB has to handle CU South stuff, that's why they are essential.

There were 4 applicants for WRAB.

Young nominates Gunnar Paulsen, a local water attorney.

Here's his answer to Young's question about what council was "missing" about CU South: "Acknowledgement that Boulder really has all the power in negotiation with CU. CU needs Boulder to annex the property."

"That really gives Boulder a unique position to step back and say what’s the highest and best use of the land in the long term. To me it doesn’t seem well-suited to CU’s development."

Wallach and Yates nominate John Berggren, a water policy analyst for local nonprofit

Here was his answer to that same q: "It comes back to that equity lens. There are ppl who live in the flood zone. Do we have responsibility to protect them? Yes. There’s other qs of equity in terms of CU and the city. Do we have the ability to learn from them...."

"....and if we learn new info do we incorporate them."

Council member casting their votes via text to Mayor Weaver.
Young, Nagle, Swetlik, Weaver for Paulsen

Everybody else for Berggren, so he gets it

Weaver: "As we say every year for WRAB, we had a surfeit of riches here .... We can't believe the technical expertise we have in Boulder."

Next up: Open Space Board of Trustees.

Did I ever spell out WRAB? Water Resources Advisory Board

OSBT had 11 applicants.
Yates nominates Matt Benjamin, an involved politico and some sort of scientist.
Nagle nominates Caroline Miller, an RN and "an outdoor person," in Miller's own words.

Benjamin is involved in the Idaho Conservation League, per his interview.

Young had a q about balancing preservation, wildlife and ag (three open space values). Here was Benjamin's answer: "Finding stakeholders to bring to find solutions that have staying power and aren’t flavor of the week."

"Our open space charter have stood the test of time but now have conflict. Preserving pdogs is now impacting ability to preserve ag lands. What is the best science that enables us to make good decisions."

Yates spoke to Benjamin's desire to have "evidence-based decision making."

Nagle can't speak to Miller that much bc she (Nagle) wasn't at the interviews. But she (Nagle) says Miller is a new person and a woman and single mother and could bring those perspectives.

Here is Miller's answer to Young's same q: "I think understanding the total cost of system management is v important when you’re dealing with p dogs, water resources, and the soil. Protecting our water resources is one of the top and most important things we can do."

"P dogs being on land that is irrigated where irrigation system is becoming problematic. Managing partnerships with BoCo or other counties is a great way of collab and understanding what’s going on in other areas beside open space."

"Going back to the charter and what charter is really asking for."

Friend had concerns bc Miller felt that CU South was an issue of "recreation vs. conservation."
Young: She is not affiliated with any kind of camp, if you will. Totally nonpartisan.

Young also brings up the need for gender balance on the board.

Young also compared Miller to Joseph, saying she (Miller) could similarly get quickly up to speed, something Friend said was a concern given lack of understanding on CU South. Miller should apply next year, Friend said.

Joseph thanks Young "for her kind words."

Brockett will be supporting Benjamin.

Joseph wants gender balance but is concerned about what Friend shared.

Benjamin ran for city council in 2017. He served on the campaign finance and election reform board, and he was the head of the Coalition in this last election, which was Open Boulder, Better Boulder, Boulder Progressives.

Wallach and Swetlik say both candidates will do well.

But probably leaning toward Miller bc of gender balance.

Miller gets it.
Yates, Friend, Joseph and Brockett went for Benjamin.

Onto Planning Board: 8 applicants for this

Yates nominates Erin Bagnall
Wallach nominates Lisa Smith

Bagnall is an architect (only 1 of those currently on the board — the one who is leaving, Yates notes.)

Smith has a masters in planning and served on Boulder Urban Renewal Authority

Smith also applied for WRAB. Her masters was in urban and regional planning.

And worked for city of Boulder from 2014-2018

Wallach asked a q in the interviews about our affordable housing goals, and if we keep on the same pace of units (market and affordable) that we've been doing, Boulder would have to add 22,000 extra homes to meet our 15% affordable housing goal. Should we do that, he asked.

Bagnall's answer: "I do agree we can do it. To the point of where, that’s the q. We need to look at transit corridors. If we’re looking to the future, we’re building along transit. Boulder doesn’t just have a housing problem, they have a transportation problem."

"We can find areas to do it with city’s help, in areas we can manage it where it can be appropriate and where ppl will find it compatible with existing neighborhood."

Smith's answer: "I’d want to look at long-term plan and what that would look like, what size, where we were putting them. Rapidly adding 22,000 would not be a good idea. We have a lot of existing housing. ... We certainly have under-utilized existing uses."

"What options might we have to explore the possibility of having duplexes, triplexes. How can we do that in a way that allows us to use our existing stock more intelligently. And preserving our more affordable housing."

"How do we make sure developers can meet that bottom line without building luxury housing. Can you please look at building patio homes, townhomes, along transportation corridors where we’re not going to see it overwhelm our traffic."

Young "bulk and mass" brings up bulk and mass.
She's for Smith.

She wants Design Advisory Board to appoint a non-voting member to Planning Board and send more site review, etc. over to DAB.

Friend: We keep encouraging ppl to reapply but we're not doing it. Bagnall has applied twice; that should be "a feather in her cap."

It's "pretty critical to me" to have at least one professional on Planning Board.

Friend: We agreed to not be partisan with our nominations and votes. I'm a little worried that we seem to be lining up with these 5-4 votes. That "smacks of something that is partisan to me, and that worries me."

I feel like Benjamin was a partisan pick but I'll have to go over my notes again to see how the others did in those interviews and what their backgrounds were.

That will be in the story; I don't have time to do that RN.

RN in this tweet = Right Now
RN in previous tweet about now OSBT member Miller = Registered Nurse

Didn't know this, but Smith ran (briefly) for HD 13 in Colorado coloradopolitics.com/hot-sheet/clea… She was part of New Era

Nagle, Wallach, Young, Swetlik and Weaver vote for Smith, she she gets it.

Now not one planning professional on the Planning Board, if council is to be believed on that. (I will confirm for the story.)

Yates: "While it's interesting, ... it's interesting, that the first three (nominations) came down to 5-4 votes, I don't want ppl to come away with perception that this council is deeply divided."

Split votes "represent the quality of the candidates," Yates says.

Weaver: "It's quite common to not have unanimity" on boards with voting power and other boards. "It's not an indication of animosity."

"We do want architectural input in the planning process," Weaver says, "but it doesn't necessarily have to be someone that sits on the board."

Likes Young's earlier suggestion to add a non-voting member of DAB to Planning Board.

Brockett: Great to involve DAB more, but "you do still get issues on planning board that intersect professional issues" not related to design, necessarily.

As much as this council pretends that they're all hand-holding and non partisan, these appointments is where the truth reveals itself. Pay close attention.

We're doing appointments for Cannabis Licensing and Advisory Board. It's super complicated: 23 applicants; 7 seats (2 marijuana biz owners for 3-yr, 5-yr; 2 connections to health or education for 2-yr, 4-yr; 3 at-large for 1-yr, 3-yr, 5-yr)

Brian Keegan and Tom Kuntsman were nominated by Yates for the 2 health/education spots and no one else was, so they get it.

For the 3 at-large spots:
Young nominates Robin Noble
Yates nominates Michael Christy
Brockett nominates Sarah Regan
Weaver nominates Rick Muñoz

Muñoz is withdrawn bc he's in the industry, apparently.

So Noble, Christy and Regan get it. They'll vote on terms later.

Things moving too quickly for me to find notes about all these ppl. Will do for the story.

Joseph talking about Muñoz; she wanted to nominate him, too bc of "life experience."

I remember him. He applied for multiple boards and is a veteran. Served at least one tour overseas but maybe more than one. I don't remember him being in the industry.

His application doesn't mention it, City Attorney Tom Carr says. But apparently the licensing ppl put him in the industry bucket.... ?

So they might revisit nominations to see if he could get an at-large spot, bc his industry experience is apparently not relevant enough... ? He's involved with Bitcoin or something.

Carr: He disclosed that he has not personal connections to cannabis industry; he didn't say that he didn't have any biz connections.

OK so Muñoz is back on the table for one of the at-large spots and council will vote again. If he gets on and turns out to have industry experience, council will revisit.

Christy is a lawyer and former JAG officer in Air Force. He also applied for multiple boards, including Beverage Licensing Authority and ... I forget what else.

Christy gets on to a 5-yr term as an at-large member

We've paused for counting.

This is *so* confusing.

OK so apparently Muñoz is developing a product for sale to the marijuana industry.... ? Weaver makes the call that that doesn't make him an industry professional so he (Weaver) wants to keep him (Muñoz) in the mix

Mad props to Lynette Beck for keeping track of all this for council. She's a saint.

Young is confused.
Weaver: Mary, why are you confused?

I am CACKLING.

Muñoz gets the other 5-yr at large spot

So far all 3 picks have been men. The last at-large spot will be a woman: Noble v Regan

Noble gets the 1-yr at-large term

Now industry noms for the 2 Cannabis board seats
Brockett: Alana Malone
Wallach: Ashley Rheingold
Swetlik: Shawn Coleman
Joseph: Evan Anderson

One seat is 5-yr; one is 3-yr

Malone was on the Marijuana Advisory Panel, which this beefed-up board is replacing, kinda.

Swetlik: We should avoid having two owners in these industry spots, for diversity.

Malone and Anderson are the owners, I believe.

Council voting to fill 3-yr industry term now

Malone gets that one

1-yr term, apparently. Apologies. I thought it was a 5-yr

Is the one we're voting on now*

Rheingold gets the 1-yr term

"Believe it or not, we've just seated a brand new board," Weaver says.

Can't believe Coleman didn't make it. He was on MAP as well, I believe, has been around for awhile and was one of the few candidates of color among ALL the boards. Lots of talk at this year's retreat about diversity on the boards...

I'll review before publishing a story, but I noted all the candidates of color for every board and I don't think they've picked one yet.

There's also an ex-oficio (spelling?) member to be appointed to the cannabis board, but council is going over whether or not to appoint tonight, since many of the applications were late and candidates not interviewed.

OK so council won't do that appointment tonight. Since it's not a voting member, not that critical.

Boulder Housing Partners is up next.

9 applicants, 2 seats
Political heavy hitters among the candidates

Wallach: Matt Bissonette
Brockett: Claudia Thiem (Boulder Progressives, columnist for the Camera)
Young: Julie Schoenfeld
Yates: Jan Burton (former city council member)

Burton also involved in the Coalition

Although there were 9 applicants, only 6 ppl interviewed

All of the nominees did

Council members vaunting their picks. I'm over it; sorry not sorry. I'll let you know who gets voted in.

Bissonette gets the 5-yr term

Schoenfeld gets 2-yr

Brockett: Usually we have public record about who votes for whom. This is being done via text... Are we recording that and making it public?

Yes, Carr says. It will be in the archives.

That's all for the appointments right now. May do more later, now the COVID update in 5 min. Gonna do a new thread for that.

Also, council waiving the rules that require a public hearing.

@threadreaderapp please unroll! Thank you :)