Thread by @shayshinecastle

Moving on: Council priorities and work plan for 2021. With input from staff.

First q: Do we want to add COVID as a priority? Given that, well, you know, it is. So this is really about "formalizing" by adding it to the Official List.

No opposition to that, so it will be added, and the 12 existing priorities will remain.

Next up: New stuff!

I haven't seen these yet.

Looks like: Occupancy limits, HAB work on tiny homes, 911 mental health response, public art permitting, BOZA code modifications, cannabis hospitality, HRC proposals, Juneteenth recognition, research all-electric building code, alternative taxes, Gunbarrel subcommunity plan

Thank that's everything.

First up: 911 mental health response, a Brockett/Friend suggestion. It's about sending mental health professionals rather than cops for mental health crises.

Brockett: "This idea is one that's been gaining a lot of prevalence in the last year, coming out of the George Floyd protests."

Brockett suggested this for the unhoused community. References a model in Eugene, Ore. (linked) Denver does it. whitebirdclinic.org/what-is-cahoot…

HHS' Kurt Firnhaber responding to this one. "We agree about the effectiveness and importance of these programs." An existing co-response program is being revamped now.

"There's a lot of dif programs. We need to understand how these would fit together." Firnhaber says. "There's a lot of dif models for this. It would have budget implications and potential savings in the future."

Police Chief Maris Herold: "I've put a lot of time and effort into studying CAHOOTS" and talking to Denver. "A lot of services that are provided are provided now."

4,000 - 8,000 calls for service each year may (or may not) apply, Herold says.

Herold: "We have to be very careful about what our expected outcomes are. ... Their sole outcome is a reduction in calls for service. But those ... go to another entity."

Cautions that CAHOOTS has not been reviewed by a third party academic source.

Fire Chief Mike Calderazzo: Colorado Springs does this as well. It started to try and divert calls from the 911 system. "We can and we should try to scope this out."

Reminder that the contract with ambulance services is up this year; it will need to be renegotiated. Boulder subsidizes the salaries of paramedics so they get paid a living wage. The city wants to bring that in-house, but it's pricey.

"Across all 3 dept, we can get some way down the road" on this, Calderazzo says. It will cost $$, but CO Springs got a grant. "There are opportunities to get $$ for these programs, but even if we did, we'd need to plan long term."

It would probably come from the general fund, but would ultimately save $$, Calderazzo says. "I do think this is a good year for us."

"We've got programs in place that are already working ... (but) now would be the time for us to build: on this," he adds. "There is a huge part of this which would really be new for all 3 dept" (police, fire, HHS)

Firnhaber: We would prob have some capacity midyear to work on this.
Herold: "It would be a heavy lift."

Young asks about a third-party academic review. Is that going to happen in Oregon or Denver?
Herold: They have one outcome: Does it reduce calls for service? (Yes.) If we want to follow the outcomes of the people involved in the program, that's a heavy lift.

"Nobody's really doing a good job following the outcomes of the people who are served," Herold says. I just want to be clear about the expectations.

Young: What outcome are we looking for?

Friend: Do we have outcomes on the status quo and the way it's done now? Do we know what happens to ppl who come in contact with police/fire? What would we be comparing this to?

We're planning on tracking what services people connect to under co-response, Firnhaber says. (The dif between this proposal and that is co-response — police + mental health — will become single response: mental health professionals)

Herold: "I bring that up not bc I'm totally opposed to this program. I just bring it up so that everybody is clear what our expectations are for the service." What we currently do may have better evaluation.

Wallach: I like this, but all three dept have indicated they lack capacity for large new projects.

"At a point in time, I'd like to see it examined," Wallach says. "I'm not sure that point in time is now."

Bergman: It sounds like they do have capacity later in the year.

Swetlik, Yates, Brockett and Friend support this ... but no one else...?

Young: "I think I'd want to wait to make a decision" to see the full scope of things rather than to "eat up capacity."

Wallach: "I'd want to see staff to come back to us and say, 'We're ready' and now we put it on the workplan."

Brockett: The fire chief said this was timely to consider. Can we not at least start thinking about it?

Calderazzo: I've heard enough to start working on it / thinking about it. I respect that the other 2 dept. don't have capacity. Even the fire dept won't have free time/staff until then.

Weaver: "I also support a review of the programs we have in the context of providing better service." But these dept are really busy. "I think there's a lot going on right now."

So it's neither accepted nor denied but moved to the "parking lot" to be revisted midyear.

Friend: Isn't this the time we put new stuff on? Even if it's for later in the year?
Young: "The time to bring up big workplan items is the time of a new council."

So this will stay in the Parking Lot

Second item: Finding alternatives to sales tax for funding city stuff (bc it's regressive). This is from Friend.

Weaver says the word "sub-bucket"

Cheryl Pattelli, CFO: "We absolutely have the capacity for this" in 2021. Not only looking at new funding mechanisms but continuing that big overhead look at city finances.

A subcommittee of council is working on this, which helps.

Weaver: There are taxes coming we may want to look at, including increases for homeless services, the library district tax, the countywide affordable housing/transportation tax.

The subcommittee needs to address these.

Another suggestion from Friend: Align the retreat and budget process, because if there's not $$ for things, council can't add any new priorities or plans.

Not likely to happen, bc the budget cycle is kind of fixed by city charter. And the retreat follows election of a new council so.... *shrug*

One idea is a two-year budget cycle, which would also give council more say, since a new council is seated every two years.

This gets added to the subcommittee list.

To discuss.

Next item: Gunbarrel subcommunity plan. This has been raised bc of new developments OK'd there, and residents feel like "the dumping grounds" for affordable housing. They want more parks/other services.

Nagle presenting this one, but Friend brought it up as well.

It was on Brockett's list as well. "It's long overdue. We should get to this when we can, as soon as we can."

Jacob Lindsey, "We hear you." The city already has an adopted subcommity plan, from 2004. It could use an update, Lindsey says.

Oh, this is the new planning director who came from Charleston. I wondered why I didn't recognize him.

Lindsey says staff can do the "scoping" for an updated subcommunity plan, but the update itself can't be handled this year. BUT staff says once the East Boulder plan wraps, this one can be next.

Nagle: What does the scoping involve? The request was just that we start the process.

Lindsey: The purpose would be to determine what about the current plan needs updating. We'd pull that off the shelf and look at it during a study session. That would help inform the full plan update, which could be a 2022 workplan item.

Weaver: I think the Gunbarrel plan was a partial subcommunity plan; NoBo is our only completed subcommunity plan.

We've also heard from the Hill and Alpine-Balsam areas that they want plans, Weaver says.

But pieces of this could be taken on by the library commission and the parks board, to see what services we can get there, Weaver suggests.

"Groundwork makes a lot of sense," Weaver says. "There are a lot of things we can do in the absence of a plan."

Friend: I didn't realize we had a 2004 version that was almost done. Maybe updating that is not nearly the undertaking that a new plan would be ...?

Lindsey: "In what I've learned is classic Boulder style, the answer is it depends."

Nagle: We've received a lot of emails about the library, but most of the residents I've personally talked to are concerned about more

"I don't want to put a pocket library and a park and say now we've dealt with you and don't have to look at all the housing we've dumped on you."

Meschuk: "We're basically checking all the boxes of a subcommunity plan. ... If that's really council's desire, it's more of a convo about is this the next subcommunity plan we do?"

Broad support for this, so it's getting added.