City Council Regular Meeting — February 3, 2026

Administrator Administrator Administrator Administrator Administrator Administrator

! Administrator Administrator Administrator Administrator

welcome yes I'll read the proclamation then turn it over to you for comments all right whereas since 1974 national Catholic schools week as an annual celebration of Catholic education in the in the United States and whereas it starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week which in 2026 is January 25th through February 1st and whereas the theme for national Catholic schools Week 2026 is Catholic Schools United in Faith and Community. And whereas Catholic schools typically observe the annual celebration week with masses, open houses, and other activities for students, families, parishioners, and community members. And whereas through these events, school focus on the value of Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to our church, our communities, and our nation. And whereas each day a different entity is celebrated, Sunday our school parish, Monday community, Tuesday vacations, Wednesday nation, Thursday students, Friday faculty, staff, and volunteers, and Saturday families. And where St. Joseph Catholic School is celebrating its 100th year of providing Catholic education in the city of Fort Collins. Now, therefore, I am Lee Francis, mayor of the city of Fort Collins, to hereby proclaim January 25th through February 1st National Catholic Schools Week. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We'd just like to say thank you for honoring Catholic Schools Week. On behalf of Father Simone and the St. Joseph School community, we'd like to thank you all for the support that we feel we are given on a day-to-day basis. Again, we are celebrating 100 years in this city of bringing the light of Catholic schools to our community, and we are so honored and grateful to be recognized this evening, and thank you for everything you do in support of us. Father Simone thank you on behalf of being our faithful leader and to my staff and community I'm truly blessed and honored to be in this position and we thank you for everything you do for to support Catholic education can't believe

it's been 100 years congratulations yes yes thank you all right well that is all the proclamations we have for this evening so stay tuned for our regular City Council meeting beginning at 6 p.m.

Good evening, everyone. The time is now 6 p.m., and I call the regular meeting of the Fort Collins City Council to order.

Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Francis.

Here.

Conway.

Here.

Fudge.

Here.

Hovind. Here. Nelson. Here. Pina Taro. Here. Padayandi. Here.

Great. Thank you. We appreciate all who have joined us tonight, either in person or virtually, and I want to remind everyone that we are here for the same purpose, which is the future of our community.

I ask that we all be respectful and listen to each other's viewpoints be thoughtful as others as they are speaking and Everyone will have a chance to be heard tonight Will the city manager please provide a review of tonight's agenda. Yes. Thank you mayor

We had two amendments to the agenda That came really as a result of our council retreat discussions this weekend So the first amendment is the addition of an item on the consent calendar which appoints a staff member as the city appointee to the Boxelder Basin Regional Stormwater Authority Board. And we were notified that that staff member being recommended is Heidi Hansen. So that is the name that is included there. And then our second amendment to tonight's agenda includes updates to Resolution 2026-19. We did renumber that item just from a logistics perspective to number 12 with the addition of the new item So that will be number 12 now It includes the specific names for the council liaison and other agency appointments We did publish that revised resolution yesterday and believe it's ready for adoption unless council has any modifications you wish to discuss

Okay, thank you There are no community reports tonight, so will staff please play the public participation video.

There are three ways to participate in city council meetings. In person in council chambers, online via Zoom, or by phone.

Anyone who wants to speak during general comment or for any particular agenda item

should sign up in advance at fcgov.com slash council comments.

You can comment on any topic, including other agenda items, during the public comment period.

Or you can comment on specific items when they are brought for consideration later in the meeting.

However, you may only speak on an agenda item once, either during general public comment or during that item's specific discussion.

The mayor will call by name those who have signed up to speak, in the order they signed up.

Connect to the internet on your computer or mobile device and join the Zoom meeting.

The link and instructions are on the meeting agenda and at fcgov.com.

Click the Raise Hand button and leave it raised until called on.

Dial the number shown on the meeting agenda and enter the meeting ID.

Press star 9 to raise your hand. Please note that public comment is not permitted about any items that could be appealed to

City Council, like certain kinds of development projects.

Information and resources about how to participate in the development review process are available

on the City's website.

Finally, please remember that public comment is not a question and answer session, and

all comments should be addressed to City Council, not to individuals.

All speakers and audience members should treat everyone with respect and dignity, maintain

a welcoming environment, and avoid actions that could be distracting.

Please enter and exit council chambers quietly if the meeting is still in progress

All right, we will now move on to public comment to ensure we have accurate information to follow up with speaker To follow up speakers are required to register to speak prior to 530 p.m. For a public comment

If you registered online prior to 530, you will see your name displayed on the screen And we ask that if you're currently a member of a city board or Commission Please identify yourself and indicate whether you're speaking on behalf of yourself or the board and Commission

At this point we have 27 people signed up before 530 and just a reminder if you are remote Please raise your hand online until you are called so we can find you

Tonight everyone will have two and a half minutes to make their comments and everyone who signed up to speak will have that same amount of time We do have two podiums, so we ask that you just keep an eye and if your name is coming up you can go ahead and line up at one of the podiums.

When the light turns green you can start your comments, yellow you will have 30 seconds, and at red we'll kindly ask you to stop. So we will now begin calling on speakers. So first we have Karen and then we'll have Brooke.

Hello, and thank you in advance for listening. I have over three minutes here. I thought we got three minutes, so I'll try to cut it down.

So just an hour from Fort Collins, the privately owned, publicly funded Hudson detention facility, which received $40 million from the federal government to fund its renovation, will reportedly have 1,200 new beds for ICE detainees, and it's going to open this year. Colorado also has up to five additional ICE detention facilities lined up. Since the big, beautiful bill allocated somewhere between $45 and $75 billion to ICE, depending on who you read, whether it's government or media, the agency now has enough funding to carry them through until the year 2029. So to me it seems likely or at least not unlikely that Fort Collins will see ice in the not-so-distant future. I'm guessing that most of you watch some news you see a lot of what ice is doing in different cities, the mayhem that they cause when they come into a city, the fact that they cover their faces so that they can't be identified, bolsters I believe their operational state of near inaccountability to the rule of law. We've all seen the videos. We know what they're doing. The list of their violence and even lethal tactics is shockingly long. So wearing the masks that are designed to cover their identities, I believe, spurs a lot of these agents to act viciously and unlawfully. maybe if their faces were uncovered they wouldn't be quite so violent but the fact that they're like this the fact that people are being approached threatened and physically menaced and manhandled by a masked militia that's terrorizing the population it's unprecedented in modern U.S. history so what I would like in short is for Fort Collins to have to start working on a ordinance to prevent them from wearing masks within the city limits. Other cities are doing it. They're all big cities at this point. 17 states either have passed or are passing such laws. It's going to go to the Supreme Court, I assume. Oh, no. Thank you. I can't talk anymore. No, thank you. Well, let's do it. Thanks. All right, sorry.

Just a friendly reminder, there are no applause in the audience to show support for one way or another. And then, yes, thank you. Go ahead, Brooke, and then Jill will be next.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I'm Brooke Anderson, co-founder of Grumpy Rhino. I'm a hospitality startup expert. I've launched and operated hospitality businesses from the ground up. And I'm part of a firm that teaches hospitality at an R1 Big Ten University. Startup hospitality is in theory for us. It's our practice. I'm here tonight to ask for a clear path to open cannabis hospitality in Fort Collins. Why? Because Fort Collins deserves a partner who understands that cannabis hospitality is hospitality first. We've studied every cannabis lounge that is opened or attempted to open in Colorado. Many founders are excellent at cannabis, but hospitality is a different discipline. Guest flow, staffing, late-night culture, neighbor relations, and the quiet operational rigor that keeps a district feeling safe and civilized. That's our lane. We focus on the unglamorous things that make hospitality work. Clean operations, trained teams, predictable nights, and design that supports all of the above. So Ventures start strong and stay strong. Our leadership team brings nearly a decade of hands-on experience across Colorado's regulated cannabis industry, paired with founding legal counsel that specializes exclusively in cannabis compliance and municipal rulemaking. Together, we ensure our operations meet the standard you set, and we follow your rules from day one. Let me be clear about intent. This is not an underground scene. It's a safe, healthy, alcohol-free social option for adults. A beautiful, calm third place where people connect and then go spend money at nearby restaurants, galleries, and shops. This is a win-win. We attract visitors from neighboring towns. We keep dollars in Fort Collins. And we inject cultural and economic energy into downtown without bar-style impacts. Cannabis hospitality is already here in Colorado. The only question is who sets the standard? Choose a team with deep hospitality startup expertise. proven operational success, active teaching and research at the highest academic level, and top-tier cannabis legal leadership. That's Grumpy Rhino. Our ask is simple. Please direct staff to bring back an opt-in hospitality framework tailored to Fort Collins and allow us to launch this with you. We will bring the operational discipline, design quality, and community partnership required to make this model the region and the nation can follow. Thank you for your time and for your stewardship of this community.

Thank you. Next we'll go to Jill and then we'll go to Rebecca online.

Good evening, Council members. My name is Jill Forrest and I live in District 2. In 2024, this Council made Fort Collins a leader in the state by banning the retail sale of dogs and cats.

You decided unanimously that the puppy mill business model does not reflect our values. Thank you for that courage.

But that work isn't finished. That same puppy mill pipeline that supplied our pet stores is still operating and it's been feeding laboratories right here in Fort Collins for decades.

While we close the front door to puppy mills in retail, the back door remains wide open.

That is why we're here tonight to ask our City Council to prohibit the use of dogs and cats in research facilities and to finally close this loophole and protect the animals we love.

This issue came to our attention last spring when the Coloradoan broke the story exposing animal cruelty.

Administrator. Administrator. Administrator. Administrator. Administrator. Administrator. Administrator.

trapped in private local laboratories right now. These dogs and cats, some of whom have been trapped for over a decade, spend their lives in cages. They undergo painful procedures. They have their vocal cords cut, and they die without ever getting the love they deserve. Tonight, you will hear from residents, researchers, and other experts who will help connect the dots. You will hear how a dog from a Wisconsin puppy mill ended up in a lab here in Fort Collins. You will hear the details of the 2025 PETA investigation that exposed suffering that no routine federal inspection could catch. And you will hear how modern science has moved past the need for this, offering innovative, more humane ways to conduct research. This isn't a new fight. It's unfinished business. We aren't asking for a radical leap. We are asking for consistency. Let's finish the work we started. Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you. Next we'll go to Rebecca online and then we'll go to Tyler in Chambers. All right, Rebecca, go ahead.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Rebecca Robinson. I'm the founder of Dane for Dogs, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit.

And I'm speaking to you tonight because research laboratories in Fort Collins have been buying beagles from a Wisconsin puppy mill called Ridgeland Farms. Since the 1960s, Ridgeland Farms has been breeding thousands of beagles and selling them to laboratories across the United States, including Red Beast Enterprises and Mountain West Research Center located in Fort Collins.

The dogs at Ridgeland Farms are bred and warehoused like inventory in stacked cages kept inside 24-7 with no access to grass, sunlight, or even solid flooring. In 2024, we brought our concerns about Ridgeland Farms to the courts, where a judge heard testimony from former Ridgeland employees about mutilations, such as cherry eye surgeries performed without anesthesia.

And the judge found sufficient evidence of probable cause for felony animal cruelty under state statute. Since then, a separate investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture referred hundreds of new violations of Wisconsin animal welfare laws to the special prosecutor assigned to the case. Ridgeland recently agreed to surrender its license and stop selling dogs to research laboratories by July 1st in order to avoid criminal prosecution.

But make no mistake, Ridgeland Farms is not an isolated case. Another major U.S. research dog supplier, Invego, which at one point housed nearly 4,000 beagles in Virginia for research, was shut down in 2022 after extensive animal welfare violations. But shutting down these research puppy mills, while an important step towards ending the cruelty in the industry, is not enough to solve the

problem. As long as labs experiment on dogs, there will always be an incentive for someone to try to

profit, and Marshall Bioresources, the largest research puppy mill in the United States, is already well positioned to become the new supplier to laboratories. In Wisconsin, seven cities have

already passed ordinances banning the breeding sale and use of dogs and cats for experimentation. I urge this council to support a similar ban. A ban like those already adopted in Wisconsin would send a clear message that Fort Collins values animal welfare and ethical science.

Thank you. Thank you. Next we'll go to Tyler and then Jessica.

Thank you so much. Good evening, Council. My name is Tyler Starr. I'm a District 3 resident, a former senior strategist at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the former community outreach manager for NOCO Humane Society here in Larimer County. I'm here to speak about a Fort Collins laboratory called Red Beast. In May 2025, as Jill mentioned, the Coloradan exposed a level of cruelty in this facility that shocked our community. We learned that while federal inspectors saw nothing, a six-month PETA undercover investigation revealed a house of horrors. The feds eventually descended on Red Beast, issuing 11 violations of the Animal Welfare Act, citing more than 200 instances of animal neglect. The details are stomach-churning. Contaminated food and water, cages caked in fecal buildup, and surgeries performed on dogs and cats without any anesthesia. These animals were fully conscious while under the knife. The most chilling evidence of their use and discard business model occurred between April and May of last year. In 30 days, 143 dogs and cats vanished from the facility. Our local rescues received nobody. These animals weren't adopted. They were seemingly killed. Why? Because providing veterinary care for 143 sick animals is expensive, but euthanasia is cheap. Red Beast simply destroyed the evidence, ordered a fresh shipment of puppies and kittens from animal mills, and restocked their inventory. This truth was only revealed because a private citizen risked her safety to go undercover. It proves that abuse thrives when no one is watching. Fort Collins cannot base its policy on the hope that a whistlebLor will do the government's job. We are not here to ask you to regulate this suffering. We are asking for an ordinance to end the use of dogs and cats in Fort Collins laboratories. We cannot claim that Fort Collins is a best place to live while we allow this state-sanctioned abuse to happen behind closed doors. Thank you for your

is Jessica Diaz and I live in District 3. I'm here tonight to speak up for those who literally have no voice. If you walked past Red Beast today, you literally wouldn't hear a thing. But that silence, that isn't peace. It's the result of mutilation. The dogs inside Red Beast routinely have their vocal cords cut without paying relief to stop them from barking or crying when they're in pain. Federal inspectors cited the lab for 11 violations of the Animal Welfare act in February and one more in July. But tonight I don't want to talk about statistics. I want to tell you about the individuals that spend their lives there. I want you to picture Bug. Bug is a beetle who was so desperate, so psychologically broken by the constant confinement of windowless cinderblock room that he chewed his chain-link fence and bent the steel. Instead of allowing him to run outside, the facility solution was to replace the wire with a solid door so they wouldn't have

to see his distress. Like other dogs there, Bug was debarked. His vocal cords were crudely cut with gynecological forceps without any pain relief, just so they wouldn't hear his cries.

I want you to think of Keegan now. Keegan suffers from cherry eye, a painful condition marked by a bulging red mass erupting from the corner of his eye. The lab's own veterinarian admitted that if a human that had Keegan's condition, he would be quote, riffing on the floor in pain. Yet he was denied pain relief. When the undercover investigator asked to adopt Keegan and take her home, the lab president refused, stating that he wanted to get a fair use out of her and he wasn't done with her yet. Now I want you to picture Holt. Holt suffered from inflamed skin, hair loss, and scabs on his

face. These conditions are signs of chronic irritation and discomfort, yet he received no

veterinary care. Then there's Bo and Docker, two 11-year-old beagles who spent their entire lives

in a cage. Bo walks stiffly with bow legs, suffering from unexplained neck pain because the lab claimed diagnostics were too expensive. Docker is missing so many teeth from intellect that his tongue just hangs out his mouth. These seniors are being warehoused as commodities because Red Beast has a client who pays a daily fee to keep them there indefinitely. They will never know what it's like to sleep on the bed or walk in the grass. Now is not the time to hesitate or delay. We must stop the abuse. We must act. Thank you. Thank you.

Maria? And then we'll go online to Mickey.

My name is Maria Perry, and I live in District 2. So we have heard the disturbing details of neglect that Red Beast. But the fact is that no, even the perfect inspection could have saved these poor animals from suffering. Why? Because under the Federal Animal Welfare Act, this is legal. It is legal in a research lab to withheld any pain relief if a researcher claims that it interferes with the data. It is legal to put a funnel down on a dog or a cat's mouth and force them pesticides or bleach eroding their stomach or their esophagus. It is legal to strap a device over their noses and force them to inhale toxic chemicals until their lungs collapse. It is legal to force a dog running a treadmill until his heart fails. It is legal to deny any painkiller, even when the animals are under surgery, open, take organelles out, put the dices in, and no pain relief. It is legal to inflict skull and bone fractures or blunt force trauma, if the researchers justify it. Under the USDA pain category E, researchers are able to subject animals to the highest level of pain without any anesthesia. Tests like the lethal dose 50, animals are fed poison until 50% of them die. Besides the physical torture, these animals endure psychological ones. Cats and dogs are social beings. That's why we integrate them into our families all the time. However, in the labs, we keep them in cages, cold cages. No sunlight, no beds, no toys, no walks, no socialization. Some animals respond by running in circles out of their mind. AND OTHERS RESPOND BY SELF-MUTILATING. SO I'M ASKING YOU, COUNCIL MEMBERS, TO PLEASE END THESE BARBARIC ACTIONS AND DRAFT AN ORDINANCE ENDING CATS AND DOGS EXPERIMENTATION IN OUR CITY. PLEASE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

GO TO MICKEY ONLINE. ALL RIGHT, MICKEY, GO AHEAD.

THANK YOU. DO YOU HAVE MY PRESENTATION UP ON THE SCREEN?

YES. OKAY.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL MEMBERS. My name is Dr. Mickey Pardo, and I live in District 6.

I have a PhD in animal behavior from Cornell University, and I'm currently a senior scientist

at a nonprofit research organization called Elephant Voices, as well as an affiliate researcher at CSU. I'm joining you from Kenya, where I'm conducting wildlife research.

As a biologist, I'm here to urge you to ban biomedical research on so-called purpose-bred dogs and cats in Fort Collins.

I know you've already heard about the investigations that uncovered horrific abuse at Red Beast Enterprises and its supplier, so I won't belabor that point. What I want to focus on is why the research they do is both scientifically unnecessary and ethically indefensible. Next slide, please.

First, Red Beast Enterprises conducts toxicology studies on dogs to test the safety of drugs for

humans, but over 92% of drugs that pass animal testing fail in human clinical trials, often because they're unsafe for humans despite being safe for other animals. Next slide, please.

In fact, a peer-reviewed analysis of over 2,000 different drugs found that if a drug was safe for dogs, the chance that it would also be safe for humans was no better than a coin toss. Next please. Conversely, drugs that are toxic to dogs can be life-saving for humans. For instance, the leukemia drug Gleevec causes liver failure in dogs but saves human lives

every day. By relying on these flawed models, we likely prevent many life-saving drugs from ever reaching

the market. it. Next, please. Second, Red Beast Enterprises conducts veterinary studies, such as this 2022

study, where capsules of fleas were glued to cat skin for nine days to study flea-borne illness.

Next, please. We all agree that doing non-consensual painful experiments on humans is

unjustifiable, regardless of how many other people it might benefit. So why do we abandon this ethical framework for animals. If it's wrong to sacrifice one human for the benefit of another, then how can

we justify subjecting cats and dogs to painful non-consensual experiments for the potential benefit of other cats and dogs? Next, please. To end on a personal note, this is my cat Noah.

He's an incredibly sweet, affectionate boy who squeaks indignantly if I walk into the room without stopping to pet him and likes to interrupt me when I'm working from home by pawing at my shoulder until I pick him up and cuddle him. I love him more than anything in the world, but I would never want another cat to suffer on his behalf because I know that they're just as emotionally complex and deserving of love. Thank you. Yep.

All right, we'll go to Scott next.

Good evening. My name is Scott Carman, and I am a resident of District 3.

I'm here to speak in strong support of ending laboratory experimentation on dogs and cats.

We find ourselves at a crossroads where we can stay on the path of outdated science or embrace modern methods.

Biotechnology gives us powerful alternatives to animal testing. Methods that advance human and veterinary medicine faster, cheaper, and more reliably. Take organ-on-a-chip technology.

These chips are micro-engineered devices made of cells that can mimic the function of entire organs,

like the heart, liver, or kidneys. This technology allows researchers to see how drugs interact with real human biology in real time. The FDA has already launched programs to utilize organ-on-the-chip systems to replace animal testing. We also have 3D bioprinting and tissue engineering.

Scientists are now printing human tissue to study disease and test new drugs. 3D-printed human skin is used to replace painful burn experiments once done on animals. We also have stem cell science that has been in use for over half a century.

We can take living cells and grow them into lung tissue, neurons, or white blood cells to study how biology responds to treatments. And of course, all of these advances are happening against the backdrop of artificial intelligence. AI can predict how new drugs will behave in the body before they ever reach a laboratory. By combining humanity's accumulated knowledge of genetics, chemistry, biology, and other related disciplines, AI delivers a level of speed, precision, and reliability. that animal testing simply cannot match. These technologies are already in use at pharmaceutical companies, universities, and government agencies. We are now able to accelerate discoveries in human and veterinary medicine that we couldn't have imagined previously. These advancements are only possible because the researchers who are embracing the new technologies instead of the same old methods that keep research stuck in the past. Science has moved on. Policy now has the opportunity to catch up. The question before you is not whether research can continue. It will. This decision is

about moving Fort Collins forward with it. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to Danielle remotely and

then to Sarah. Hi, my name is Dr. Danielle Demetiz and some of you may remember me. I spoke to you a year ago as I was getting my PhD at CSU. It's good to be back. I'm now a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, working on alternatives to animal testing. I'm here tonight to provide some information about these alternatives and to paint the landscape of current efforts to phase out animal testing in this country. I am presenting this information as my own views and not those of the NIH. Let me walk you through what's happened just in the past year. At the NIH, there has been intentional restructuring to just how research is funded. Starting in mid-2025, NIH stopped issuing funding for grant proposals that exclusively use animal models. This means that all grants going forward must have some new approach method, which includes computer models, organ-on-a-chip systems, organoids, and cell cultures. Furthermore, NIH awarded 87 million in September to launch the Standardized Organoid Modeling Center, a national resource for creating new approach methods using human tissue models that replace animal testing in drug safety evaluations. Other federal agencies are moving in the same direction. The FDA Modernization Act 2 is a bipartisan bill enacted in 2022 that ended the requirement for drugs to be tested on animals and opened the door for embracing new approach methods. The CDC announced at the end of last year that they will be phasing out all primate research. The EPA issued statements to phase out animal testing by 2035. I have spoken with EPA and NIH scientists who are supportive of using alternative methods to protect public health. The use of cats and dogs in research is coming to an end as people realize associated ethical concerns and cost inefficiencies. In May 2025, the U.S. Navy officially terminated all dog and cat testing through the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. NIH folLod this precedent and also released a statement to phase out cat and dog research. The future of research does not look like a beagle in a cage. It looks like human-relevant methods, biotechnology innovation, and breakthroughs that protect public health. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, go to Sarah.

And then we'll go to Kara.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Sarah Swanti, and I'm the co-founder and executive director of Animal Friends Alliance. Tonight, I want to talk about the new state pet adoption law, SB25085.

Some may argue that this law solves the problem that we're bringing to your attention tonight by allowing lab animals to be adopted. Many might think this law guarantees that every dog and cat coming from a lab gets a happy ending.

That's an illusion. Here's the reality. The law, as it is written, authorizes researchers to euthanize animals for research, health, or safety reasons. In other words, it allows labs to continue euthanizing animals at their discretion.

Adoption continues to be an option, not mandatory. While the new state law sounds like progress, in practice it will change nothing. The data confirms this. Since this law went into effect last year, no lab animals in all of northern Colorado have been released to our animal shelters for adoption.

Even before the law took effect, labs had the option to give us animals to adopt out.

Yet in over five years, Animal Friends Alliance has not received a single laboratory animal. No cohumane has confirmed the same. When the Red Beast facility was cited for 12 federal violations last winter, they didn't call us for help. they chose to kill over 140 dogs and cats. When given the choice between compassion and euthanasia,

so far as we can tell, private labs in Fort Collins choose euthanasia.

But that's not the only issue. Even if these labs chose to release these animals to shelters for adoption, our shelter system couldn't absorb them. Nationwide, there are still far too many homeless pets in shelters without adding hundreds of deeply traumatized beagles who've spent years in cages undergoing painful procedures. These aren't adoption-ready dogs. They're special needs cases requiring intensive rehabilitation, and for these reasons, many would still face euthanasia even in a shelter. The state law suggests our shelter system can clean up the mess after the damage is

done, but the only humane way to prevent their suffering is to stop it before it starts. I urge this council to pursue an ordinance that ends the testing of dogs and cats in Fort Collins. these animals are family they deserve to be treated with love and dignity not as disposable test subjects thank you thank you next we'll go to Kara good evening city council my name is Kara

Thorson and I live in district 3 in 2024 this council passed sammy's law banning the retail sale of dogs and cats. With that vote, you made a powerful statement. Fort Collins will not tolerate animal cruelty. That was an act of courage and leadership. I'm here tonight to ask a simple question. How do we continue the work we started? Because while Fort Collins stopped the puppy mill pipeline into pet stores, that same pipeline is still delivering puppies and kittens into our city. Only now they're suffering from extreme confinement, invasive experimentation, and they are dying inside Fort Collins laboratories. We didn't know that in 2024, but now we do. We heard tonight that federal inspections failed to stop the abuse in our local labs. An undercover investigator had to risk her own safety to expose it. Some will say we need better oversight, better inspections, more regulations, but we cannot regulate animal cruelty. We can only decide whether to permit it or not. We know the new state law promised lab animals a second chance through adoption. The reality is that these experiments leave animals with decimated bodies and broken spirits. Many of these experiments have a death as an endpoint, so the promise of adoption is impossible from the start. Tonight you've also heard that science has advanced and modern technologies like AI, organ on chips, tissue technologies are faster, cheaper, and more accurate. Our own federal government is moving in this direction by phasing out animal testing and taking massive actions to make this happen. And here's what I know about this council. You don't follow. You lead. In 2024, you proved you were willing to protect our most vulnerable members of our community. You wrote compassion into law. And tonight, we're asking you to take the next step. Let's clearly say that animals we love are not commodities. They're not test subjects. And they're not disposable. They are valued members of our family. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to John.

Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead, John. Good evening. Thanks, Mayor and City Council members. My name is John James. I'm a physician in Fort Collins. I'll just reiterate what the First Citizen articulated about encountering ICE agents in our city. I would like to ask the Fort Collins

City Council to investigate and work on an ordinance to have ICE agents follow three basic

and reasonable rules. Number one, they should not wear masks so we can see their identities.

Two, they should provide standard government IDs to also have their identity shown. And number three, they should wear body cameras to document their activity and events surrounding their activity. Thank you.

Thank you. Maria? Oh, okay, great. Thank you. Next we'll go to Ryan and then Neil.

My name is Ryan Burns.

I'm here to speak today as a resident of District 3 about concerns related to the flock safety cameras.

when it comes to software development, typically an agile approach is used. And what that means is that an iterative, flexible project management approach is taken so that customer feedback can be dynamically incorporated into the product and that there's not a huge wait time and lead up to iterative improvements. Now, that becomes a problem when the product in question is one that sits on what is the scale of checks and balances, which is the system of government that we have today. And so I see that the changes to the audit logs that Flock Safety is making on a regular basis, the changes to drop-down fields that police officers can use from moving from a text format where they can free-form enter a description of the reason for the search in their system to a drop-down selection. is an iterative UI development and improvement, and yet it becomes a much broader issue because it affects the audit logs and availability that is necessary for the use case of log safety's cameras to be observed. and the reason that that observation needs to be in place in the first place is because of the checks and balances that we have between the citizens and the government and so I Am concerned that we continue to see flock safety cameras in place today and they may be a very

Concerning violation of our fourth amendment rights Thanks, thank you Neil And then we'll go to Israia.

Hello, and thank you, council members. My name is Neil, and my family lives in the 4th District. So I'm also here today to talk about the flock safety cameras. So we have over 50 flock cameras installed around Fort Collins. These cameras are not our new traffic safety cameras, which automatically record incidents, much to the chagrin maybe of our more reckless neighbors. And these are not simple security cameras like you'd see in a gas station that police officers can look over after the fact.

These cameras are complicated machines that use machine learning to identify and catalog license plate numbers, car make and model, and color, and even bumper stickers. They can record pedestrians and people getting out of cars,

and this data can be cross-referenced with a name and other personal information. With this footage and data, the company essentially builds a vast searchable database of the members of the Fort Collins community so anyone with access could do a quick search and find information on anyone who has ever even driven to work through our community. These databases are quickly and easily shared across government departments and state lines, unchecked by voters and elected officials, only at the discretion of the flock clients, like the police department. A Fort Collins residence could show up in a search from a local police officer, a police officer in Florida, a non-government firm that requested access, or as purportedly more and more common, an immigration officer using this search, requesting access. So again, these cameras are creating a searchable database of Fort Collins residences. Access to the database is changing hands, not determined by voters or elected officials, but at the discretion of the paying clients of flock safety. As has been spoken of, they have a kind of lax attitude towards cybersecurity.

The Council in Denver had a letter last year in which they said, I quote, We have serious concerns about flock, groups, inks, ethics, transparency, and credibility. We do not believe the City and Council of Denver should continue doing business with a company that has demonstrated such disregard for honesty and accountability. I know this is a singular issue among many concerns tonight, but I entreat you to please do a quick Google search when you can and see what journalists have uncovered about these systems. I hope Fort Collins can join the growing list of cities that have removed these cameras from their community. Thank you.

Thank you. Ezra, and then we'll go to Kat.

Ezra, District 3. Good evening, Council. I know where you live. I know what car you drive. I know where you stop before work, after work, on the weekends. I went to your house. I took photographs of your vehicles. I wrote down your license plates. I folLod you when you left your house. I took photos of your car as you drove around town. I wrote down every location you stopped at and which roads you used to get there. After I did this for about a month, I developed a pretty thick dossier on all of your activities. It turns out you can learn a lot about a person just by following them around for a month. And then I gathered this up and I posted it on the internet and told people they could do whatever they wanted with it. But don't worry, you didn't commit any crimes. You have nothing to worry about, right? Now in case anyone is getting out their phone, to report me for stalking, I didn't actually do any of those things. But I certainly sounded like a creep when I described it, didn't I?

Yet that is exactly what you are doing every single day to every resident of Fort Collins. These flat cameras are tracking the movements of every resident of the city, everywhere they go, whether or not they committed a crime, whether or not they are even suspected of committing a crime.

Just because you offload the creepiness to a computer doesn't make what you're doing any less creepy than what I just described.

Imagine for a moment that you were to start assigning a police car to follow every resident of the city around. Now, if you wouldn't do it that openly, and I don't think you would,

then what makes you feel like it's okay to do it quietly and surreptitiously? And while we're on the subject of quiet and surreptitiously, I wanted to mention the totally not shady at all way that Flock quietly updated their terms and conditions during winter break. These are a couple of the terms that you'll be agreeing to if you renew your contract. Contrary to their marketing, they now state that customer data does not include the underlying raw footage, which is now apparently Flock's property.

Flock now reserves the right to edit, redact, crop, or watermark the footage they provide you.

Flock now has the right to store footage indefinitely, even past the 30-day retention period. Flock now reserves the right to distribute the footage to anyone they choose, including by selling it. You will agree to indemnify FLOC against any and all violations of your contracts, these terms, or any applicable laws. And finally, these terms and conditions are subject to change at any time of FLOC's sole discretion.

Does that sound like a legitimate government contract? Thank you. Thank you.

We'll go to Kat and then Jonesy remotely.

good evening my name is cat steel i'm a resident of district 6. i'm a member of the active modes advisory board but my comments tonight are my own opinion and not related to any board activities vision zero was established in 2023 with the goal of creating streets where no one is at risk of losing their life or being seriously injured.

This goal is supported by mode shifts to reduce motor vehicle trips, prioritizing safer speeds and multimodal hubs, promoting a culture of traffic safety, increasing data transparency and partnerships,

and centering equity. As Council prepares in the coming weeks to review the strategic plan and Council priorities, I recommend that Vision Zero be elevated to a standalone strategic goal when Council sets its priorities for 2026 and beyond.

Vision Zero is currently a subset of the Transportation and Mobility Strategic Goals and is closely related to the Neighborhood and Community Vitality Goals. Vision Zero is a critical component of the Transportation and Mobility Strategic Goal, prioritizing progress toward the goal to have no serious injury or fatal crashes for people walking, biking, rolling, or driving in Fort Collins by 2032. Vision Zero's inclusion in Neighborhood and Community Vitality Strategic Goals highlights removing obstacles to building interconnected neighborhood centers to accelerate progress toward our goal for everyone to have daily goods and services available within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their home. Elevating Vision Zero to a standalone strategic goal creates opportunity. Dedicating resources, making it safer to travel in Fort Collins. As improvements are made to existing roads, intersections, and sidewalks, and as communities grow, recognizing the safety of residents should be a primary concern over the convenience of traffic movement. When Vision Zero is elevated to a standalone priority, community engagement would be influenced by highlighting changes that impact the safety of travel, while also addressing incidents involving pedestrian cyclists and micromobility users in a more open and immediate forum, providing resources and solutions to addressing the underlying causes of traffic incidents. Thank you. Next, we'll go to Jonesy remotely.

Hi, I'm Jonesy Wenschel and I'm a Fort Collins resident. My zip code is 80528.

And I'm calling to urge the city council to pass a resolution against ICE,

similar to the one that Aurora passed earlier this year.

And then also to go further and commit to no compliance from the city with ICE

and to ban non-medical masks from ICE. Thank you. Thank you.

Next we'll go to Gabrielle Remelby. Go ahead.

Hi. Good evening. My name is Gabrielle. I live in City Council District 5. In January, the Mennonite Church in Old Town Fort Collins was condemned. I'm not here to like complain or litigate about the building being condemned on its own, but this has caused sort of a disruption of community care for our unhoused neighbors. Previously, the Mennonite Church was a central location for harm reduction, food donations, clothing donations, and handouts to the unhoused population of Fort Collins. I'm extremely proud of the way our community has worked to assist our unhoused neighbors, particularly at the nexus of the Mennonite Church.

But now that it's closed, these locations have all kind of dispersed, and it's harder for them to reach the homeless population in less of a concentrated way.

And in light of this, and also in light of the fact that it was a lot of community support supporting the homeless population,

I would like to ask the city council to increase its resources and assistance to the unhoused population and to do so in a way that preserves their dignity and respects them rather than just kind of attempts to push them out of sight, out of mind.

I'm also going to double dip real fast and agree and jump on with other citizens who are asking for a restriction on ice that they cannot wear non-medical masks in the city.

It would be their government workers just like you are hypothetically they are government workers

But it would be really outrageous if I came to City Council and you all were wearing gaiters and sunglasses and hats pulled low over your faces And we didn't know who you were on our council

And you also had the ability to shoot anyone in the council chambers who you found annoying or to disappear someone whose look you didn't like

But that's how ICE is operating as as government workers as a government force. So I would appreciate it if the City Council takes proactive steps to protect its citizens, especially given forthcoming rumors that Denver might be one of the next big targets,

and certainly the violence will not stay in Denver, but will definitely trickle out. Thank you all very much for your time.

Thank you. Next we'll go to Jessie. And then we'll go to Alex Remoli.

Hello. My name is Jessie Harper-Bischoff. I am a resident of District 4, and I'm here today regarding the use of block cameras in our city. I've only recently learned about how extensive their surveillance capacities are. They're marketed as tools that help law enforcement fight crime to promote safer communities. I, too, desire a safe community, but not if it includes a private company recording data about me and sharing it with anyone who has access to the cloud without a warrant, no less. I am also very uncomfortable with the idea that this data could be used to round up my immigrant neighbors and detain them without due process.

I'm curious about a few things. How did these cameras get placed in our city without a public vote? How long does Flock keep the data from Fort Collins before deleting it? Who else is accessing our data besides the Fort Collins Police Department? Can we even know or control that?

I see these and other questions in the list compiled last year by Councilmember Padiondi. When and how are they being answered? Personally, I would like to see our FLOC contract canceled until the people of Fort Collins get the answers to these questions

and get to vote on the use of these cameras and the data that they are constantly collecting about us. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next word to Alex.

If there's anyone who signed up to speak online and you're online, could you please raise your hand?

Mayor, we have three more and we're not matching anyone on our remote attendees.

Okay.

So I would move on and we can circle. We'll let you know if anyone comes in. Sounds great. We'll move on to Amber.

And then Levi.

AMBER. I SPOKE A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, SO THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME BACK. MY NAME IS AMBER. I LIVE IN DISTRICT 1 AND I'M CURRENTLY AN EMT STUDENT HERE IN FORT COLLINS. SO COMING AGAIN TO TALK ABOUT ICE PRESENCE IN COLORADO AND THE HARMS THAT IT'S CAUSING EVERYONE. WE KNOW THAT ICE HAS KILLED AT LEAST NINE PEOPLE THIS YEAR. THOSE BEHIND DETENTION WE MIGHT NOT KNOW YET. They've been terrorizing all of us and they've been buying up mega warehouses recently. So we know that they are planning to continue to escalate their actions. ICE continues to model early slave catcher patrols in the U.S., making this a uniquely American problem where they have the right to stop any person of color, demand their papers, and whether they look at their papers or not, cart them off to a detention center, disappear, torture, assault, or kill them. They have that right and they are operating with impunity. So it's important that we recognize the severity of the problem that we're facing. So this is not a new issue. That's partly good news. This is an issue that people of color and indigenous peoples have been facing for so, so long. And that's a horrible thing. But it also means that it's now just our turn to fight it. So my question to all of you is, are you OK with any of our neighbors being disappeared or killed by ice? And seeing that several of you attended an anti-ice strike or attended the bike ride that spelled stop ice, my answer, the answer seems to be no. right so then with that we need to see actions come from the city council and so my asks are that you direct fort collins police to not cooperate with ice to the best of your ability so that they do not cooperate with sharing information i ask that you pass an ordinance banning them from wearing masks so that we know the identities of people who are terrorizing all of us i ask that you work with immigrant communities directly and i ask that you recognize that there is a concentration camp just 66 miles away from us the aurora geo detention and center in which people are suffering from illnesses without adequate medical care. They are being held there without warrants. It's in our backyard. And we will have to reconcile the fact that we alLod a concentration camp to operate in our state. We will have to explain to our children and our grandchildren why we alLod that to happen. And speaking as someone who has studied political science in college, I've worked at all levels of government. I know that this is just U.S. violence and imperialism, that we've enacted a broad returning home. Everything that we have alLod to happen to the Palestinians can and will happen to us here. So while my demands today are calling for reforms to keep us safer in the meanwhile, our ultimate goal should be to abolish ICE in all violent colonial systems. Thank you. Thank you. Levi?

Hi, my name is Levi. I'm a special education educator in PSD. In addition to this, I'm a community organizer for immigrant rights and ICE response. Kidnappings, including plainclothes arrests, stalking families outside their homes on their way to school, and breaking windows have already occurred in the past several months in our community and the likely expected invasion in Denver will flood our streets in horrific numbers with more kidnappings in Fort Collins. I'm here to ask that you do everything in your power as federal presence escalates in our community to ban face coverings for ICE agents. Our work in community organizing did not begin this year or in this administration. ICE's previous deadliest year was 2004, one year after the agency's founding. Liberals may get loud about ICE when Trump is leading the charge, but these cages were built under Obama, these abuses were alLod under Biden, and these deportations soared under every administration. This is not a lack of training. The system is working exactly how it was designed, and abolition is the only solution. There are historic 70,000 people in ICE custody at this moment, larger than that number, and And the administration is planning to double this number. Every single person in this number is a neighbor, a sibling, a parent, a friend, a child, and a person. It shouldn't matter that the fiscal surplus of undocumented immigrants totaled $14.5 trillion between 1994 to 2023 or that immigrants contributed more in taxes than they've received in benefits. Their rights matter because they're human. Since this administration took office, at least 3,800 children have been forced into their custody. We saw that picture of Liam Ramos and his blue bunny hat as he was used as bait to lure his family out to be kidnapped. While the activism of countless people across the U.S. may have brought him home this week, hundreds of children dislike him remain at Dilley Detention Center as protesters are realized outside. It's documented that ICE officials have stated that if facial coverings are banned, they will not have the staffing they need to continue these horrific crimes at this level. They know that they cannot walk around in a community without consequences if they show their face. banning facial coverings and following the lead of Aurora City Council and other Thank you.

Thank you. Dori?

Hi. So I'm going to be short and sweet. ! My name is Dori Mann. ! I'm in District 1, right? Okay. Anyway, I'm here. Somehow I don't feel I can say anything new that these folks haven't said. I'm here really to speak about deflocking Fort Collins. Bottom line is I really love our city. I know that each of you do and all of these folks here, they wouldn't be here. What we're seeing in Mayaple. that each of you do and all of these folks here, they wouldn't be here. What we're seeing in Minneapolis is really scary. And I'm really just urging you to be proactive. We need you to be proactive. I don't necessarily have the answers, but I'm very concerned about what the FLOT cameras can do, especially to people of color within our community. It's terrifying to me. And so I'm really asking you to dig and see what the new rules are. I know Ezra spoke on some. They know far more than me about the deflocking, but I'm scared with this administration what we could accidentally do to our neighbors and our community. So just please look into that as far as the stored information and the sharing of information and as far as the flock company being able to own the information and share it with others. that's terrifying to me and i'm just here to say um we elected you because we know you love our city and we need your help protecting it so please consider that as you're making decisions about

deflocking and ice and all of that and thank you thank you nope nope sorry all right um we have Alex or an Elsa online we have anyone else showing up okay That is everyone we have signed up by 5 30 p.m. So we will in public comment there and does anyone on council have any follow-up?

Well, they're thinking about I'm just gonna remind everyone that we have a work session on flock cameras on February 24th So you can either come and watch it in in chambers or online And so I think a lot of the questions that you're raising will be answered there and we'll get more information and more direction from council So February 24th

Anyone else have a follow-up? Yeah, Council Member Pat Yandy.

Thank you, Mayor. And thanks to everybody who came out.

I truly believe that Fort Collins has the smartest, kindest residents, and I just appreciate all of the thoughts we heard tonight. I think there are a lot of discussions that were brought up that are not soon to be over and will be continuing, but I wanted to address specifically the concerns

about current and potential ICE involvement in the community.

Like I said, I don't think this is a discussion that's going to be over. That being said, I'm guessing that folks are aware that we need to be very thoughtful in

the way that we approach this issue.

We do have some staff who I think are able to speak to a couple of specific issues.

But for the empowerment of residents, I can tell you, and this is me speaking as District for a resident, but I took a training through the ACLU that was on the We the People activist toolkit. They had a video training. They have lots of tools for residents who want to be able to support our immigrant population and interface if needed with ICE in a legal and safe manner. So I would recommend that. It was helpful to me. But I do know that our police chief is here tonight, and I would love it if you could speak a little bit about how Fort Collins Police Services plans to approach ICE activity in our community and information sharing.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor, members of City Council. I'm Jeff Swoboda, the police chief. You know, I think there'll probably be many back and forth questions because I probably won't be able to answer everything as you're talking about it. One of the things that we have recognized early on is in the state, there's a clear separation between local law enforcement and ice. And so as we're watching what's going on around the country, it appears at times where if local law enforcement is not on scene, things aren't running very smooth, I guess, to say the

least, right? And so one of the things that we've had conversations internally, what we are going to start doing is responding. First of all, we respond to all calls for service, but responding

to any call. So I'd encourage any resident that, in fact, I got text starting earlier this morning. We had another operation going on with some unmarked cars, and people wanted to know if it was ice, and we were able to tell them it wasn't at that point.

So I would encourage people to call us. We are going to be responding. Our officers are going to be having their body cameras on. And our goal really is around de-escalation, protecting people, getting into specifically what we would do. It really depends on time of day, what's happening, how many people, is it a park, is it a roadway? So I can't get into exactly what we're going to do, but I want to commit that anyone calls for council police services, we're coming. Our body cameras are on. Our officers are highly trained in our plans on any call for services to deescalate and protect life. And that's exactly what residents can expect. So I don't know that I have good answers specifically as far as, you know, what are we going to do? I had a meeting this afternoon with some allies who are representing other groups of undocumented individuals and some of the concerns they have. I could go on and on about the meetings I'm having with groups right now. And so I would also say we are opening ourselves up to have any meeting at any time with anyone.

Being the police department, obviously we can't just walk into meetings. That could also concern people as well if we just start showing up at places. So I would just ask if people would like to have us, I would personally attend those meetings, come and talk about it. And then I'll just end with this and answer, obviously, any questions you have.

It's just difficult to say what we're going to do depending on what we see. What we have seen on TV, though, is troubling.

And so what we have committed to is to show up on those calls for service and protect people to make sure that we don't have similar instances here as best as we can.

Thanks so much, Chief. And for those of you who haven't seen it, Chief Silboto put out a really excellent video message to the community. But I just appreciate the openness. I also was wondering, could you just speak a little bit to limitations under Colorado law around information sharing with federal agents?

Yeah. So if it involves anything around immigration, we can't cooperate. We also have many ordinances here, local police. We don't ask anything about someone's immigration status. So there's a clear, a bright line with that. One of the things where it can, people can say, wait, you know, I thought you don't cooperate with ICE. If there is a criminal investigations, we can we coordinate with any federal law enforcement agency. So if someone is acting, you know, for a while, FBI, DEA was working with ICE. It was kind of one big group in some ways. I think that's sorted out a little bit. But if there was a criminal investigation, we would work with any federal authority on a criminal investigation on immigration. No, we don't spend any time with that. You know, last thing I would say, maybe it's a little bit more about the first question as well. I think what the federal government is learning is something that local police have known for a long time, and that without the community's consent and without the community's support, we would fail. And that's why we're able to have one officer per thousand or so residents, because we have the support of the community. And so we hear also the concerns around FLOC, so I'm looking forward to my team will be presenting on that in two weeks, I think it is, because we don't want to employ any technology that's going to erode trust. And so I know a few people have talked about it. You know, there's the balancing act between how safe and what technology and privacy and when those bump up against each other. So I appreciate putting time on the agenda for us to have this work session in two weeks. But anyways, I went off. But that's what we're doing with immigration. And many people have my cell phone and I would encourage people to reach out, email, and we will We will be at any meeting or continue having conversations with just a few individuals at a time is fine, too

Thank you so much chief and I don't want to ask another question. Do other folks have questions for chief Swoboda?

Okay, okay

Well, I think mine is more of a statement so many of you know that I have served as an immigration advocate in our community for the past ten years and And the relationship that many of our local organizations have specifically built with Chief Swoboda and members of Fort Collins PD has been very fruitful and has been built on a lot of communication. And I encourage everyone right now what's happening at the federal level is not normal. And I can't emphasize that enough. It is not normal. There are organizations locally and there are organizations statewide that can provide the training that we all need right now. Because, again, this is territory that we should not be in. And the unfortunate part is Congress has the ability to stop it. And right now, these executive orders are really putting people in harm's way. So please look at the Colorado Immigration Rights Coalition. Please look at the Colorado Rapid Response Network. Look at the ACLU trainings, and please contact me, ahoven at fortcollins.gov, and I can direct you to more local services if you're interested in de-escalation training, in constitutional observational training. these are really important right now and I do want to thank Chief Swoboda for making time for people that I'm close to for me just to continue to share information that's more important than ever and it's I'm grateful so thank you any other questions for the chief

yeah councilmember Conway yeah I just have a question so what is the protocol for the police officers in Fort Collins, if somebody claiming to be a federal agent wearing a mask or to arrest somebody or detain them, you know, if they're wearing plain clothes? Yeah, I mean, that's in

many ways the question, the most popular question is, so what are we going to do? So I would encourage people if they're ever involved with something, I mean, every police officer in Fort Collins is going to have identifications, whether it's our patch, whether it's our badge, nameplate, Even people that are in plain clothes have to have insignia representing Fort Collins Police Services. So if someone is dealing with someone, they don't know what the heck is going on, and people, quote, unquote, grabbing someone and pushing them into a car, I would encourage you to call 911, and we will be there very fast. So it's interesting. Had you asked me that question six months ago, I would tell you we would show up. we would talk with the federal agents and say, hey, what do you have? They would politely tell us what they have. They would show us what they have. They would explain it. We would explain it to the family. And people would leave with an understanding of what has occurred. I don't know. If what we're seeing unfold in Minnesota came to Colorado and there are large numbers of ICE agents, how that dynamic is going to work. And so what I just can tell you is we will be there. We will ask questions. We will have body cameras on. I think one of the real benefits of us being at calls for service where if there was immigration or, again, any large group happening, if a crime did occur, whatever that crime is, we will be there to lock down the scene. We will be there to start gathering evidence. We will be there to coordinate a response. Talking with the district attorney yesterday, that is the assumption of every local law enforcement officer. And we would be in charge of the investigation. Now, knowing if it was a federal officer, that there would be partnerships, talked with the FBI today, and they would agree, yeah, we would go side by side. My guess is if you asked Minneapolis how something like that would go six months ago, they might say the same thing. There would be a coordinated effort. People would all talk and there would be and we're seeing that that's not necessarily the case. So I can't say exactly how it's going to go, but I can't tell you well-trained officers will show up with body cameras on and protect life.

Thanks. I just want to again echo some of the sentiments that Councilmember Hoven had. I think she has been an incredible resource. And I just want to thank all the people who've been out in Fort Collins protesting. And, you know, the thing that's really helped me process some of the stuff that's going on around the country is just watching some of the incredible resilience of immigrant communities, first and foremost, but then also people protesting in Minneapolis. And so I'm really thankful for the people of Fort Collins who are out every week and people are doing stuff every day to help address these issues. And so thank you, Chief, as well for addressing some of these concerns. So thank you.

Any other questions for Chief? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any other public comment follow-up? Yeah, Councilmember Pignataro.

Yeah, I'll go. Thank you to everyone, as always, for coming out tonight. I will start with the animal research. well kind of what I've learned over the last year I've met with several of you that showed up trying to figure out the best way forward Sarah thanks for bringing up that state law around adoption and that it isn't quite what it seems because I also landed on that conclusion thinking that maybe we could require all our animal research facilities to register the cats and dogs but that actually doesn't work that way so that was a dead end and I agree there are such exciting technological advances that I am eager to see animal research just put to bed for good. The more I looked into the different, most of the laws that we have examples of are at a state level. And I'm starting to realize why, as we've looked into the facilities that we do have locally. We have eight that we know the USDA monitors, but we also know that the USDA is not doing so great right now as other government agencies, and so can we truly rely on them. And so I could go through, I mean, it's been months and months of going down different paths and seeing what works at this point. I think what we need to do if resolution 12 passes, I will be on the legislative review committee again. And that is. I will be on the legislative review committee again and that is one that has a closer relationship ! with our state representatives to see what we can do about what we support that they're working on as well as other things that are concerning us. ! And so my plan is to have this as one of the items that we add to our legislative review ! What is that document called? ! I forget it's I forget anyway I'm sorry we update it every year from the committee and work with the state to do something that can really prohibit these research facilities from to do something that can really prohibit these research facilities from continuing when they have such egregious abuses as what happened at Red Beast. So thank you again for you guys for coming out. I know that's not like the answer you were wanting to hear, but no, we are going to continue working on it, and I definitely will. Moving on to some of the other people that spoke, thank you, Kat, for coming in. We did pick actually Vision Zero as one of our priorities, And so super excited to see that move forward. And hopefully we can really get going on some of those actions from the plan we adopted a couple of years ago for Brooke. Also, I believe marijuana, looking at our laws because they haven't been updated since 2013, did make the cut as well. And so I don't think that work is going to be able to start till 2027 just because of budget constraints. But it is in there as well. And then I was hoping maybe the city manager, if is there anyone here who can speak to what's been happening on the homelessness front, especially with colder weather and then with the unfortunate fire at the shelter downtown, as well as what happened with the church?

Yes, I'm going to invite Vanessa Finley to come forward. she is with our community vitality and housing department and can talk a little bit about that sorry we recently changed the name and i'm still getting it used getting it there in your mouth

yeah hi good evening vanessa finley senior housing manager in housing and community vitality and we did have our first activation two weekends ago that last weekend in in uh January. And this year we were able to utilize a couple of community churches who operated as community shelters. So they were able to shelter up to 15 people. One shelter actually was able to accommodate additional families. And then the other shelter was able to accommodate single met where we know that there's a great need. In addition, the Fort Collins Rescue Mission has utilize some additional space up in Wellington at their Harvest Farm location. So they've been sleeping 40 to 50 men up there. And then of course, we've been using our location at 117 North Mason. And so over those three nights that we had the inclement weather response, nobody was turned away, which was great news. And we know that there's still great needs in the community. Right now, the rescue mission is continuing to work to get back into their Jefferson Street location and still working on new construction up at their new location which is going well because we've had such warm weather okay great thank you

so much I just want to say thank you everyone for coming out tonight I know that a lot of us are concerned about our community members and just seeing everyone show up in support and making sure that our fellow residents are safe and well is a big representation of Fort Collins. So thank you so much. With that, does anyone on council wish to pull any consent calendar items for individual discussion?

Seeing none, is there a motion for the consent calendar?

Yes, I move to adopt the consent calendar, items 1 through 11.

Second. We have a motion by Council Member, sorry, Mayor Pro Tempunitaro and a seconded by Council Member Patiandi. Is there any further discussion? I see none. Please call the roll.

Hoven?

Yes.

Padayandi? Yes. Fudge?

Yes.

Pina Taro? Yes. Conway? Yes. Nelson? Yes. Francis?

Yes. That passes 7-0. Do council members have any comments on the consent calendar? Just one. Yeah.

for item 7 just wanted to say to point out in the resolution that it it talks about how some students live in North of mine have very different experiences from students living South of mine and it means a lot to me as a district 6 representative to have our city try to bring some equity to that situation so Thank you.

Yes. Any other? All right. Seeing none, there are no staff reports tonight. Do Councilmembers have any reports? Yeah, Councilmember Hoven.

I attended the Fort Collins Police Awards Ceremony last week, and it was amazing. It was very reflective of members of our community that came tonight that care very, very much about their neighbors and residents and some of the heroic efforts that many people took to save or care for their neighbor was amazing. So I was really excited to witness that for the first time.

Council Member Pott-Randy?

Yeah, I just wanted to shout out all of the staff and also staff at Visit Fort Collins who hosted us for two consecutive Saturdays, full days, working on our council priorities. It was a really lovely event. It was a great space in which to do some good work. And I know that that happened with enormous effort from staff and also from our mayor and mayor pro tem who did a lot of that planning.

So thank you guys. I think we came out with some really good direction for the next couple of years on council. So thanks, folks.

I would agree. I would stay tuned. Our next work session next week, we'll review our priorities that we'll consider for adoption. Any other reports? All right. Seeing none, we will move on to our one and only discussion item, which is making board and commission liaison and council committee assignments. Is there a staff presentation for this item?

We do not have a staff presentation. Again, just a reminder that this for the public, this was a conversation that you all had at your retreat. And we have subsequently filled in all of those names. And so the item is ready for your consideration.

Thank you. We don't have anyone sign up to speak on this item. So do council members have any questions or comments? I just have one comment that I don't think a lot of people know how many commissions and boards we have and the Dedication of council members to serve as liaisons for this So I think on average every council member has between four and eight appointments that we keep up with So I just want to thank council for their involvement and dedication and being grid liaisons and representatives for the city so With that, is there a motion?

Yeah, I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. But I guess so. Okay. I move to adopt resolution 2026-019, making board and commission liaison and council committee assignments and making appointments to various external boards and authorities.

I'll second that. That was a second by Nelson. Okay. Motion by Mayor Pro Temin is seconded by Council Member Nelson. Any further discussion? All right. Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Pariani? Yes. Fudge? Yes. Pinatero? Yes. Conway?

Yes.

Nelson? Yes. Francis? Yes. Hoven?

Yes. Okay. That passes 7-0. Do council members have any business to come before council? I have one item of business. I just wanted, I know we discussed this at the retreat, but I wanted to bring forward the ad hoc committee. I'm going to get my language so I get it right for the attorney.

I know that we have officially adopted one of our priorities, but I would like to get the resolution for the committee started.

So our discussion at the retreat around our to-be-named priority of streamlining development review and support council's priority of making it more predictable, efficient, and cost-effective to build in Fort Collins.

For those new members, if you want to support this, you would raise your hand or express support of starting the ad hoc committee because we need three people. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Do you need anything else?

No. I saw more than three head nods. What I would suggest is we will get this resolution ready to bring it back and that we would do that on March 3rd, which is when you will be officially adopting your priorities so we

could do that concurrently. Sounds great. Any other business? Okay, seeing none, this meeting is adjourned. Good night, Court Collins.