City Council Regular Meeting — April 21, 2026

Good evening Fort Collins. The time is now 5.01 p.m. And it is time for our proclamation portion of tonight's meeting. Tonight we have five proclamations and we will start off with declaring April 24, 2026 as Arbor Day. If you would like to support this proclamation please come on up.

and who's accepting the proclamation

Freddie? Freddie? Freddie? Freddie? Freddie? Freddie, are you accepting the proclamation?

Sure. Okay, great. All right, here we go. Whereas in 1872, more than a million trees were planted in Nebraska to celebrate the first Arbor Day, which is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees in our city are important community infrastructure and increased property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community as well as help conserve energy used by shading and cooling buildings and pavement. And whereas trees improve people's mental and physical health, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, provide habitat for wildlife, and can offset the greenhouse effect by turning carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming, into life-giving oxygen. And whereas Fort Collins has been recognized as a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation for 48 years and whereas the city wishes to recognize Bacon and Harris Elementary which have been selected as the Arbor Day School site for this year's trees plantings and whereas the city also wishes to recognize the Platte River Power Authority for maintaining a strong commitment to the environment with the addition of non-carbon generation resources and whereas the Platte River Power Authority supports sustainability and community improvement and has given the city $3,500 to purchase trees that will be planted in honor of Arbor Day. Now, therefore, I am Lee Francis, mayor of the city of Fort Collins, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2026 as Arbor Day in Fort Collins and urge all community members to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our city's urban forest canopy by planting trees for present and future generations. We thank the Plot River Power Authority for its generous donation and Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery for its donation and contribution to the celebration of Arbor Day. Congratulations. Yes.

Hand this off there, folks. We so appreciate the support we get from the community and our partners like PRPA here, and then our Arbor Day schools. We have our principal from Harris here with a student, which is just fantastic that we can have that as a long-term. This is our 40th year of going to classes. We go to every fifth grade class and present for Arbor Day, and then we give seedlings to all those students, so we really appreciate being able to keep this tradition going. I'm going to hand it off to our friends at PRPA.

Thanks. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. I look forward to this every year.

We work our way around the four communities. Platte River Power Authority is owned by the city of Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, and Estes Park. This is our 25th year of supporting Arbor Day, and every city does it a little bit different,

but we're really proud, and it goes along with our mission of being environmentally responsible as well as being affordable and reliable. And so it's just the perfect fit for us and it's cool for us to get to see the kids involved and planting at the schools Like I said, everybody does a little bit different. I'm Jason Frisbee. I'm the CEO My car colleague cari Lynch who won't come up here with me because she claims she's taking my photo But next year I'm going to get her to talk at the 26th year But with that just just a thank you because really it's our privilege to be able to do this and give back to the communities that we serve So thank you

volunteers here of course we've got also we want to say to our volunteers

this also volunteer month is gonna be spelled right here but we've got a couple

of our volunteers they do a lot of legwork for us doing those presentations and it's it's huge so thank you

Thank you. Yes, I think I have two of these.

Who gets the other one? PRPA. Great.

Okay, good. Oh, yeah, we can do a picture. We have two photos here.

No, we have. You've got to stand in the back. I am always in the back.

Can you guys hold this one, were you? Yeah. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Always great to have littles here to remind us why we're doing this. So thank you for coming.

All right, the next one we are going to do is National Library Week. If you would like to support this proclamation, please come on up.

Hello. Thanks for coming. Nice to be here.

All right. Whereas libraries spark creativity, fuel imagination, and inspire lifelong learning, offering a space where individuals of all ages can find joy through exploration and discovery. And whereas libraries serve as a private community hubs, connecting people with knowledge, technology, and essential resources while fostering critical thinking and cultural enrichment. And whereas libraries are accessible and inclusive spaces that promote a sense of community, advancing, understanding, civic engagement, and shared community goals. And whereas libraries provide free and equitable access to books, digital tools, and innovative programming, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background, have the support they need to learn, connect, and thrive. And whereas libraries such as Poudre Libraries and Colorado State University Libraries protect the right to read, think, and explore without censorship, standing as champions of intellectual freedom and free expression. And whereas dedicated librarians and library workers play an important and unique role in the communities they serve by providing a welcoming environment where all are treated with respect and dignity. Now therefore, I am Lee Francis, Mayor of the City of Fort Collins, to hereby proclaim April 19th through 25th, 2026 as National Library Week. Congratulations.

Thank you. I'm Diane Lopp here, Executive Director of Poudre Libraries, and I'm here with our Board Vice President, Hillary Herman, and my colleague, Katie Allman, who is taking pictures. but want to appreciate all of you for supporting your Poudre library system not just during National Library Week but all year long our mission is to create opportunities and build connections to strengthen our community and we're fortunate to live in a community with such a strong library system and appreciate the support of the city and creating what is the library that we have now and also supporting our future library at the Southeast Community Center. We have a strong partnership between the city and the libraries and look forward to that growing and developing into the future. Thank you. ! Thank you.

All right.

We are very excited to have a new partnership with the library in our southeast community center. And I can't say how huge of a fan I am of libraries. So thank you, Diane.

Okay, the next we have is National Volunteer Week. If you'd like to support this, please come on up.

If you're a sitting volunteer, come join.

Yes, if you're a volunteer, please come on up. Hello.

Hello. Woo, we got them.

I love them. All right. We ready? All right. Whereas volunteers can connect with local community service opportunities through hundreds of community service organizations, and whereas individuals and communities are at the center of social change, discovering their power to make a difference,

and whereas during National Volunteer Week all over the nation, service projects will be performed and volunteers recognized for their community service and Whereas April in a month for volunteers with the occurrences of National Service Reconation Day

CS unity Earth Day and numerous city volunteer projects and Whereas Fort Collins has a sixth largest volunteer rate of any mid-sized city in the country at 38%

Whereas volunteers are virtual are vital to our future as caring and productive nation now therefore

I am Lee Francis mayor of the city of Fort Collins to hereby proclaim April 19th through 25th 2026 as national volunteer week in

Fort Collins and urge my fellow community members to volunteer in their respective communities by volunteering and recognizing those who serve we can come together to make a difference

Thanks Emily I'm Hannah Krikorian. I'm one of the many leaders of volunteers across the city a few volunteers and managers of volunteers are here with me. We have the best jobs. As we recognize National Volunteer Week, I'm honored to highlight the impact of volunteers across the city of Fort Collins. Fort Collins is a wonderful place to live in large part to the community members who contribute their time, talents, and treasures as volunteers. Time for the math. Over the past year, over 6,500 volunteers contributed more than 130,000 hours of service, which is the equivalent of nearly 64 for full-time employees. That's an economic impact of over $4.6 million. So these contributions support programs and services all across the city, over 20 departments. I'll list a few, just in case you didn't know. But parks, recreation, forestry, boards and commissions, conflict transformation works, healthy homes, natural areas, Lincoln Center, utilities, police services, volunteer services with our teens and next-gen serve, emergency preparedness and security. And I'm saving the best for last, because it's the one I represent, the gardens on spring creek beyond the numbers volunteer strength in our community create connections expand access to programs and help keep services affordable for all this week we celebrate the thousands of individuals who give their time talents and treasures as volunteers in our community y'all truly make the city the better place thank you

Thank you.

Okay, we would not be the city we are without our volunteers, so thank you very much.

All right, our next is declaring May 1 through 9 as Art Week.

Do we have people who would like to celebrate Art Week? Come on down.

Hello, welcome.

Okay

All right whereas the arts are essential to Fort Collins's identity economy and quality of life

Enriching the daily experiences of residents and bitter visitors in making our city a more vibrant connected and welcoming place to live work and create and

Whereas art week for cons held May 1st through 9th 2026 is a celebration of arts led by Fort Collins mural project

with the support of the Downtown Development Authority and broad coalition of local partners presenting events,

performances, exhibitions, and experiences that showcase the remarkable depth and diversity of our creative community. And whereas the celebration of Art Week Fort Collins is uniting creative sectors across the city and bringing them into a concentrated celebration throughout downtown Fort Collins, giving the community and artists a rare chance to coalesce in an area that is widely accessible for all. now therefore i am lee francis mayor of the city of fort collins do hereby proclaim may 1st through 9th 2026 as art week fort collins congratulations

thank you so much um it was really kind of apt to go after volunteer week because

the arts is so heavily ran on volunteerism and i personally am a volunteer as the executive

director of fort collins mural project these are my board members callie and jesse also volunteers we're super excited to bring you guys art week we have over 50 events that will be going on

throughout the week well slightly longer than a week to fit all 50 so we'll be may 1st through 9th starting on first friday and ending the following saturday we'll be ending with our grand finale event which will be at visit fort collins which will be uh our exposition exhibition

with local artists through who have done art through the fort collins mural project so the

Murals you see, not all of them, but a lot of the murals you see on the walls of Fort Collins. We've done 107 throughout our city as a fully volunteer group.

And we plan to continue adding more beautiful art, more representation, and more joy to the walls throughout this community. Thank you for having us. Make sure you sign up soon because things are booking up quickly. And we also have over 25 partner organizations. So this is going to be a wide breadth of the arts and a cool way to see downtown and our city as a whole activate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

What an exciting event for our city. Huge fan of murals both on the wall and on the street.

So thank you so much.

Thank you for coordinating that. All right, our last proclamation is declaring April as National Poetry Month. If you would like to support this please come on down. Big crowd.

Do we have multiple people accepting the proclamation or speaking tonight?

I love this. Okay, great. I'll just turn it over to whoever's going to speak after this. Okay. All right. Whereas Fort Collins is home to a vibrant and diverse community of poets who create art that fosters empathy and serves as a powerful vehicle for expression throughout our region. And whereas the literary landscape is strengthened by organizations such as the Gulo Gulo Poetry Collective and the Columbine Poets of Colorado that provide critical professional development, commodity, and advocacy for writers. And whereas the Fort Collins Poet Laureate Program hosted by Wolverine Farm Publishing serves as a beacon of civic pride, promoting literacy and the appreciation of poetry throughout the community. And whereas Colorado State University supports literary excellence through its academic programs, accomplished faculty and staff, student-led organization, and its community literacy center. And whereas the Fort Collins Poetry Slam, KRFC 88.9 FM, and Lip Chicken, the People's Poetry Podcast, extend the reach of poetry by amplifying and celebrating our regional voices. And whereas our city's unique character is bolstered by venues for the written and spoken word, including Wolverine Farm Public House, the Museum of Art Fort Collins, the Lyric, the Atrium, and the Neighbor.

and whereas our city's independent booksellers and local publishers act as vital curators and supporters of the written word providing important opportunities for poets to connect with readers and share their craft and whereas national poetry month is a time to celebrate the power of the poetic word and to recognize poets organizers and venues that help this essential art form is

accessible to all residents of fort collins now therefore i am lee francis mayor of the city of Fort Collins do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Poetry Month.

Hi, my name is Thomas Ivory Jr. I'm a co-founder of the Gulu Gulu Poetry Collective. We are super honored for the city of Fort Collins to recognize April as National Poetry Month. We're also super honored to have the support from the city for our vibrant local community

who provides poetry throughout the year, particularly Chloe Leesler, Sasha Steenson, and Kathleen Willard.

Amongst those who also enrich the city of Fort Collins and beyond with their brave and powerful self-expression through poetry,

I would like to introduce a former Colorado Poet Laureate to end with a poem, Mary Crow.

It was wonderful to hear all these proclamations. I was thinking I'd like to stand up for all of them. They were great, and it makes Fort Collins so wonderful, as does the many, many poetry events. events, and a lot of these people are involved in organizing these events. You can't possibly go to all of them. But in this very chamber, when I was Colorado Poet Laureate, we had poetry in the buses, poetry in motion, and that was wonderful. The student, there was a big contest to choose the poems and the artwork to go in the buses, and the bus came down here, and

everybody got to go out and go through the bus and come back in. And we now have a Colorado Poets Laureate anthology that just came out.

But I'm a poet, but I'm also a translator.

So I'm going to read a very short poem translation. It's by a Chilean poet, and I'm going to read the Spanish first. His name is Jorge Tellier.

And here's my book of poems with my sister's painting on the cover from the country of Nevermore. Regalo. Un amigo del sur me ha enviado una manzana demasiado hermosa para comerla de

inmediato. La tengo en mis manos. Es pesada y redonda como la tierra.

gift a friend from the south has sent me an apple too beautiful to eat right away

I hold it in my hands it is heavy

and round like the earth thank you

and thank you for all the support ! Anyone else?

! There he is There we go Alright, you guys got to squeeze in more I know that Oh good Thank you Thank you

Thank you Thank you.

not only a beautiful poem but a stone lion bookmark which is very old-school

Fort Collins so thank you Mary okay that is our last proclamation proclamations are also occasionally read in the community and all are encouraged to

attend this Friday I have the honor of reading the proclamation for the Fort

Cons music Association for foco MX and our local music appreciation month so I hope everyone enjoys

Foco max and participate and listen to our great local music so that is all for tonight and stay tuned for our meeting at 6 p.m. Thanks everyone

the time is now 6 p.m. and I call the regular meeting of the Fort Conn 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 our all.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Francis, here. Pina Taro, here. Nelson, Hoven, here. Pachyandi, here. Fudge, here. Conway, here.

Great. Yes, quorum here. We appreciate everyone who has joined tonight, either in person or virtually, and I want to remind everyone that we are here for the same purpose, the future of our community, something that we all care about. I ask that we all be respectful and listen to each other's viewpoints tonight. Will the city manager please provide a review of today's agenda?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. So there are not any changes to the published agenda, but I do want to review several items that are coming up tonight. So I am going to be pulling item number seven from the consent calendar. That's related to broadband capital. This is not a time-sensitive item, and upon further review, there are some additional clarifications and wording changes that need to be made. So we're asking you to just postpone this indefinitely, and then we'll bring forward a cleaned-up version for you in the future. We will hear from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment this evening as a community report on the city's participation in their wastewater surveillance program. item. Tonight's consent calendar does include 23 items recommended for approval, again with the exception of item 7 I noted earlier. It's a full agenda with four discussion items. The first two items on discussion are on there to enable Mayor Francis to recuse herself due to a conflict. So that is a grant revenue to develop a new Fort Collins Housing Action Plan and also supporting an accessory dwelling unit grant application. And then our remaining to discussion items, we will be talking about the Southeast Community Center. So we'll first talk about the financing documents. And then finally, items relating to design, construction, and joint use and operation of that center. And then after all of that, we are going to be asking councils to consider a motion to go into executive session to discuss issues of competition in providing telecommunication facilities and services. So again, related to connection.

Great. Thank you. We do have a community report tonight. Is there a presentation?

Yes, we do have a presentation. I'll go ahead and invite Allison Wheeler from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment up. And then she is going to be introduced by Leslie Hill. Leslie Hill is our Water Quality Services Division Director. So, Leslie and Allison, come on up. The floor is yours.

Good evening. I'm Leslie Hill, the Water Quality Services Division Director. Our division includes the watershed team, the Water Quality Laboratory, and the Pollution Control Laboratory. We contribute to the Wastewater Surveillance Program by providing wastewater samples through our pollution control lab. I'd like to introduce Allison Wheeler, who's the manager of the Wastewater Surveillance Unit in the Communicable Disease Program at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She's led the team since the program's inception in August of 2020 and has over 16 years of experience in public health.

Thank you, Leslie. And thank you to the Fort Collins Drake wastewater utility for participation in our program.

As you will hear, they provide very valuable data to your community. So as a native Coloradan who was born in Fort Collins and a graduate of CSU, I'm honored to be able to share my program's work with you tonight. Next slide, please.

Sorry, I think I'm pressing the wrong thing. Okay.

Well, I'll just start. There it is. All right. So wastewater surveillance, for those of you who have not heard about it, is this really cool surveillance system where we can take a sample of wastewater to see what's happening with the health of that community. community. So it's a non-invasive, very cost-effective way to monitor health in a community. By analyzing wastewater samples, we can determine disease trends for communities. And we don't

have to rely on individuals either seeking access to or seeking healthcare or having

access to healthcare. And it overcomes some of the challenges of traditional case reporting where we usually have a delay between testing and then the results.

And in Colorado, wastewater surveillance really adds an important layer of insight to our disease monitoring system.

So it can enhance preparedness efforts, and it helps inform public health decisions. But it always works best, of course, when interpreted with other public health surveillance data.

Next slide, please. There are several benefits to wastewater surveillance. We share this data publicly so that Coloradans can assess their disease risk.

And so we've heard from people who are immunocompromised or have someone who's immunocompromised that lives in their household. And they use it to deChinatown-International Districte when to travel or sometimes when to go to the doctor's office. I use it for when I go see my 102 year old grandma who lives in Colorado Springs Just to make sure that there's not a lot of illness in the area. We don't want to bring that to her

We know that with some of the pathogens that we monitor people shed the virus into wastewater before they have symptoms or sometimes even if they don't develop symptoms

So we can we can catch that illness in an area. It's an early warning system

And when we see an increasing trend of illness in a certain area with COVID or flu, RSV, or even a detection of measles, we can work with the local public health agency to allocate resources. So whether that means staffing at a hospital during the respiratory virus season and there's a surge of illness,

or whether we have measles in that area so that we can get vaccine out to our communities. We also use this system to fill clinical surveillance gaps.

So there's some of our pathogens, like a pathogen called enterovirus D68, that's not a reportable condition in Colorado. And so we use wastewater surveillance to track this illness because it helps our Children's Hospital Colorado colleagues be able to, again, allocate resources, have appropriate staffing on hand, know when to test for that pathogen. And this pathogen in particular can cause really serious illness. It can cause a polio-like paralysis in some children with asthma.

So that's why we want to use wastewater surveillance for that.

There are, as with any surveillance system, there are limitations. You know, we are only able to monitor those areas that are served by a wastewater system. And so we're not able to capture homes on a septic system or those facilities that are decentralized or that process. Silver

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what they're bringing into the area, I should say. So whether it's really tourists that are, you know, bringing in flu or whether it's the residents. We know that the amount of virus shed is variable from person to person and also by pathogen. And

so with wastewater surveillance data alone, we're not able to estimate the number of cases per

community, and that's why we always evaluate our wastewater surveillance data alongside clinical

data. Next slide, please. All right, so what does this process look like? We provide all of the

supplies to our wastewater utility partners. They collect two samples for us every week. They do this for us in kind. They take a sample going into the wastewater treatment plant, so before the wastewater has been treated. They package it up. We provide a courier or a shipping service to

get those samples to our state lab. Our techs at our state lab concentrate the sample, and then they're able to determine how much virus is in the sample. Our lab team has also developed the ability to characterize the virus.

And so we're able to determine COVID variants,

subtypes of flu. And then we can also confirm those low-level detections of pathogens

that we don't see very often in wastewater, like measles.

So it's been very useful, especially recently. Then that data goes to our data team. Our data team takes this very messy,

very large data set, and molds it into a digestible format for our public dashboard and our internal

dashboard for our partners. Next slide, please. Okay, so we have changed our model since we first

started in August of 2020. During the pandemic, the directive from the governor to us was to add as many wastewater utilities as possible to our model. Well, there are over 250 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants in Colorado, so that was quite a lot. We had 68 at the height of our

enrollment, and we deChinatown-International Districted that if we wanted to sustain our program and be able to continue to

add new targets for testing, that model wasn't sustainable. So we evaluated a series of Sentinel

surveillance site models. And if you'll go to the next slide, please. And we came up with this model

on the screen. I know it is hard for you all to see. But what we came up with is 21 wastewater

utilities that are located all across the state. If you can kind of make out the orange triangles

there, those are the 21 Sentinel sites. And so there is at least one Sentinel site in each of our nine all-hazard regions. You can see those in the different pastel colors on the screen. And they serve the largest population in each of those regions. We also have three additional Metro, Denver Metro area utilities because they serve such a large population. And then four of

our high tourism sites because we know that COVID was introduced or, you know, we first saw it in

one of those high tourism sites. So even though we reduced our participating utilities by two

thirds, this was back in August of 2024, we still are monitoring about half of Colorado's population through this system. The other thing that we did is we had built this, you know, this great framework of wastewater utilities who were willing to participate. And so those who weren't part of

the Sentinel system were added to our emergency surveillance system. So these utilities don't

submit samples on a regular basis, but they have the supplies and they're ready to sample whenever there's a public health emergency. So we've activated several of our utilities to do

surveillance for influenza A, H5, which is the highly pathogenic avian influenza. It was up in

the northwest corner of Colorado, or sorry, northeast corner of Colorado two years ago,

when we had several affected dairy herds. We've also activated several of our

emergency surveillance sites for measles as well. So it's been really successful. All right, next slide, please.

So what do we test for? As I said, we started, of course, with COVID. We added flu and RSV in 2023. And then we added EVD-68, which I mentioned at the beginning of this talk. And we do surveillance for MPOX clade 1 and clade 2, which thankfully we do not see a lot of in Colorado, including in wastewater. We also do surveillance for West Nile virus, which I think is of particular importance in Fort Collins and Larimer County. That will be added to our public dashboard mid-May, so keep an eye out for that. We're starting, our seasonal surveillance will start on May 1st for West Nile. We have added measles, of course. And then we're in a pilot period right now looking at Candida auris, which is a fungus that causes very severe infections, especially in healthcare facilities, and antimicrobial resistant genes. And so more to come on that. Those are not available on our public dashboard right now. Next slide. This is our public dashboard, and this is just a screenshot of the homepage. but it shows the trends of the diseases that we monitor. Once again, West Nile will be added to this. Most of these diseases are monitored year-round, with the exception of EVD-68 and West Nile. Those are monitored during their season, so May through October. We also on this dashboard have COVID variant data, flu subtyping data, and it's listed by utility. And so the link is at the bottom of the page there. If you want to write it down and bookmark it so you can go check it out, that would be amazing. We also welcome feedback on our public dashboard. We want this to be a very useful tool for all of our community members. And I believe that's my last slide. I'm happy to take any questions. And once again, thank you for having me. And thank you, Leslie and the Fort Collins Drake Utility for participating.

Great. Thank you for the informative presentation. Does Council have any questions or comments? Yeah, go ahead, Council Member Hoven.

I just want to thank you for your hard work. The data seems extremely important, extremely valuable, and I appreciate the information. So thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? All right, see none. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Thank you All right, we will move on to our public comment portion of our agenda today. Well staff, please pay the public participation video

There are three ways to participate in City Council meetings in

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should sign up in advance at fortcollins.gov slash council meetings

you can comment on any topic including other agenda items during the public comment period

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The link and instructions are on the meeting agenda and in your participation confirmation email.

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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.

nd answer session and all comments should be addressed to city council not to individuals.

! Signs and props must be 11 by 17 or smaller and may not block anyone's view. ! All speakers and audience members should treat everyone with respect and dignity, maintain a welcoming environment and avoid actions that could be distracting.

and the meeting is still in progress.

All right. Council will now be ready. now hear public comment to ensure we have accurate information and follow-up speakers are required to register to speak prior to 5 30 p.m. if you registered online prior to 5 30 your name will be displayed on the screen at this point we have 38 people signed up before 5 30 so everyone will have two minutes tonight to make their comments for those in chambers please approach the podium as you see your name coming up on the screen as next to speak you don't need to wait for me to call on you to come up for those online please raise your hand now so we can easily find you and be prepared to speak as your name is called at the beginning of your comments please state your name and general address staff will use the timer to track time available for each speaker when the timer shows green light you can begin your comments a yellow light you have 30 seconds left and a red light will ask you to finish your sentence and then kindly ask you to stop please know that if you speak about an item during general public comment you will not be able to speak a second time on the same item when that item is heard I will now begin calling on speakers as a reminder if you serve on a board or Commission for the city you should identify yourself in the board and indicate whether you're speaking on behalf of yourself or the board of Commission all right so we will begin with Pat and then

Marge I thought I had three minutes my name is Pat Berger I am the president of of the Larimer County League of Women Voters here representing over 450 strong people. I would like to thank Amy Lewis, a chair of our Civil Rights and Liberty team, and Marge Norskog, who did a lot of research on this statement that I'm about to give.

The League is committed to ensuring that constitutional rights are neither weakened nor abridged. Today, these rights face growing challenges, not only from government action, but from public-private partnerships between law enforcement and private technology companies. Recent attention has been focused on the systems like flock safeties, automated license plate readers, which create large searchable databases of vehicle movements. But this is not a single company issue. Across the country, rapid expansion of surveillance technologies are outpacing the policies meant to govern them. This creates two core risks. First, a gap in democratic, little d democratic oversight and accountability. And second, a pattern of private vendors failing to prioritize civil liberties and that erodes public trust. To that end, the Larimer League calls for three essential protections. One, little d democratic authorization. Surveillance partnerships must be approved by elected government bodies. Number two, judicial oversight. Number three, transparency and accountability. Public agencies must provide regular reporting and independent audits. Equally important is the choice of partners. Any private company entrusted with surveillance tools must demonstrate a clear, consistent commitment to civil liberties and public accountability. In summary, the League supports surveillance technologies only when there is a strong democratic oversight, strict legal compliance, full public transparency, responsible private partners, and clear public control of all collected data.

Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Next, we'll go to March and then Janice.

I am Marge Norskog, and I live in District 2. While I am not speaking on behalf of the League of Women Voters, I am a member of the local league. I support the league's advocacy on the importance of democratic oversight of surveillance technology to protect privacy. As surveillance technology has evolved, we've discovered it is racing past our established legal boundaries. It's so important the City Council quickly adapt to protect the right of privacy of Fort Collins residents. new surveillance technology snap pictures indiscriminately their data collection is triggered not by wrongdoing but simply by motion so any vehicle or individual that crosses their lens is recorded without a warrant that is without reasonable grounds this raises serious questions about the ability of current law to protect privacy we know that current law and ordinances do not cover these new technologies that build mass data collection Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver

! under a business-as-usual approach or at the discretion of unelected officials. ! Council members, those elected and accountable to voters must step up ! and create the legal framework of laws and ordinances need to protect privacy. ! Oversight should include regular audits of the system, careful legal review of all agreements with private ! and that would ensure compliance with local and state laws and constitutional standards. Silver ! standards. Democratic oversight to protect privacy is a fundamental constitutional safeguard. This is why whenever an update to process or procedure that has the potential to violate privacy must be considered by elective bodies and with full public awareness. Thank you. Thank you. Janice and then Fred.

I am Janice Ort and I live in District 6. While I am not speaking on behalf of the Larimer League of Women Voters, I am a member of the local league. I support the league's advocacy on the importance of protecting the privacy of personal data collected by surveillance

technology like flock cameras. The data collected by surveillance cameras is not a commercial

asset. Individuals do not forfeit their rights simply because information about them was

collected digitally or through third-party systems. The Fort Collins city government must take action to protect its residents because private vendors are not subject to preserving constitutional protections. Therefore, for Collins City, agencies must have the full ownership, custody, and control

over all data collected.

Then the city can write laws to set strict limitations on how data is stored, accessed, and shared.

private vendors must not have the ability to use analyze retain or distribute data

beyond the specific and lawful purposes for which it was collected this request

that government control all collected surveillance data is urgently needed it

has been widely reported that data collected by flock cameras in Colorado

has not been consistently protected despite Colorado state safeguards instances have been reported in Denver, Loveland, and other municipalities in which federal entities access local surveillance systems to conduct

prohibited searches such as for immigration enforcement. Such access raises serious concerns regarding the ability of companies like Flock to comply with local laws, Colorado laws, and constitutional protections. Fort Collins needs to assert data sovereignty over data collected by Fort Collins surveillance cameras. Collecting data indirectly by surveillance cameras does not make that data exempt from constitutional protections or state law. Fort Collins taking... Thank you. Fred and then Terry.

Dylan, do you have the slides? Great, thank you. I kind of see that. Okay, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Fred Kirsch, Fort Collins, here tonight talking on behalf of Community for Sustainable Energy. Since January, about 250 C-Porsors have written to City Council concerning questions around our climate future and the budgeting discussion that will begin next week. One of the first questions that we asked is will the city work with the Colorado Energy Office Energy Performance Contract Program? And one of the first responses that we got back is actually at the bottom there and it's basically says this doesn't have responsibilities PRPAs which is the kind of an odd response for city buildings we're talking about municipal buildings But that response didn't last very long. It pretty quickly moved on to the response that's at the top there, which there's a lot of great words there that don't really answer the question. It talks about the long history that the city has in doing some good stuff, new energy, new building construction, excuse me, solar projects that have been done, but it does not address the question that people had, which is will you work with the Colorado Energy Office, until you get to the bottom where it says that the city does work with the CEO and has two pending grants. I did some research. Those grants are for helping commercial properties meet building performance standards. It doesn't have anything to do with municipal buildings. Oh, and then the last thing is we're happy to provide more information. So if you can go to the next slide, please.

We followed that up and got more responses without really answering the question. The key thing that we're asking you to do next week is to ask very clear and direct questions of city staff and get very direct answers. We don't need more spin. We've been asking the same question several times now. We'd like to get some direct answers about that. Thank you. Thank you.

Terry and then Jenny. My name is Terry Pashtag. I reside in District 4. While I am a member of the League of Women Voters, I speak as a private citizen alarmed at what I am seeing as an erosion of our civil liberties at a time when tensions are running very high. And I think what I'll do is just cut to the chase because I cannot talk fast. So what we were hoping for is two forms of legal action. And number one would be we believe that we need ordinances that protect us from the overreach of surveillance. And number two, we need regular audits conducted by an independent source. The process of auditing would send a message that monitoring is in place, in other words, maybe a preventive strategy, and would identify any breaches of the agreement. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you.

Jenny and then Barbara.

Hi, my name is Jenny Kiesling. I live on Chase Drive. When I wrote to the City Council in 2025, expressing my surprise that the City was investing more resources in the Platte River Power Authority, I received a detailed but obfuscating response, talking about percentages and goals, but not about costs and benefits. Instead of financial analysis, I received a validation of the status quo. Quote, staff have confidence the existing and forecasted utilities budget has the right levels of incentives and infrastructures to achieve the existing goal. An expansion of the goal would likely require additional resources that we do not believe are the best use of funds at this time. The citizens of Fort Collins deserve answers to questions like incentives to do what? and what is the relationship between the cost of the incentives and the goals? Who, the staff or our elected city council members, determine the best use of funds and on what criteria? My concerns increased this year when I asked about slow progress towards reaching the building performance standards. In response, I was directed to a glossy website which proclaimed 13 big moves. Under Big Move 6, efficient emissions-free buildings, I found a convincing cost-benefit case for new building performance standards. I read it enthusiastically before realizing the council had already set aside the whole program. Why direct me to read a glowing description of an abandoned program? With more time, I would ask why big move number 12, 100% recyclable energy, is the only big move with no links suggesting how we might get there. This good news website seems to be the city council's preferred means of communication with the citizens of Fort Collins. We love learning great things about what's happening in our city, but we also need to learn. We need accurate information about our city's energy priorities.

Thank you. Barbara and then Brooke.

Okay. Hi, everybody. I'm Barb Krupnik-Goldman. I live in Council District 6, and I'm here to talk about the importance of putting policies in place to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions and meet our climate goals. And tagging along with some of what Jenny just said, I'm going to talk about building performance standards, or BPS. In Fort Collins, our buildings, residential and commercial, are responsible for about two-thirds of our city's greenhouse gas emissions through their energy use. So implementing standards to cut energy use in buildings would be an effective measure. Last year, the city staff worked on and then modified a BPS policy, which was then voted down by that council. You guys are different, I hope. I encourage you to ask the staff to bring you a BPS policy for reconsideration, and one that is closer to the original version that was proposed. The policy should include multifamily residences and have a compliance deadline of 2030. credit should also be given to a building for having solar panels to generate their own clean energy and for electrification of their appliances emphasis should be on cost savings and benefits from using less energy and on the incentive and rebate programs that are available to help building owners with the costs while incentives are important it has become clear that incentives alone are not enough to have significant impact or they would have by now. Regulations must be paired with incentives in order to spur effective action. I recently learned and wrote to some of you about the Accelerator Impact Grant that the Colorado Energy Office has given to the City of Fort Collins. I just want to say that climate impacts are not delaying. We have seen wind storms, drought, fires. Please don't delay.

Brooke and then Ed. Hello thank you for your time I really appreciate it. My name is Brooke Bowman and I've lived in Fort Collins for four and a half years and I'm a graduate of CityWorks 101 last spring. So I'm here today to advocate to you for the effectiveness of the using the climate tax during your meeting next week with city staff. I remember in 2023 voting for the climate tax with high hopes for the implementation. However, I've been really disappointed to find out that the city has used the money for incredibly expensive projects and only implemented one of 34 solar projects identified as prime opportunities in 2023. Using climate tax dollars for these solar projects could have greater carbon dioxide reductions per dollar and save the city money with a 10% annual return on investment. Cost effectiveness of carbon dioxide reduction must be the main metric for budgeting for the climate tax. I just want to close with this. At a time when the federal government is disappointing us in investing in fossil fuels, we the people of Fort Collins are relying on our city government more than ever to step up and take bold strategic positions on climate policy and invest in renewables. This is not the time for bare minimum passive efforts. We need our city to maximize how far our tax dollars are going for climate action. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ed followed by Matthew. Good evening Mayor Francis,

esteemed council members. My name is Ed Behan and I live in District 2. I'm speaking on behalf of the Larimer Alliance for Health, Safety and the Environment and as a concerned citizen. Tomorrow is Earth Day when we as residents of this planet are reminded of our duty to be good stewards of our environment. After all, we live here but share it as well with a complex web of life which is increasingly deteriorating under the impact of human growth and development. and the continued burning of fossil fuels, warming our climate, and affecting the ability of life and society to continue as we know them. Two minutes is not enough to address all the complexities raised by this knowledge. Suffice to say it is critical that Fort Collins does all it can to improve energy efficiency to meet longstanding goals to achieve 100% renewable energy. Briefly, budgeting for effective climate strategies as the world continues warming will be increasingly important, especially in view of appalling cuts to appropriate climate initiatives by the current federal administration. This could include adopting robust building performance standards to reduce the need for additional electric power, more efforts to deploy virtual power plants which draw on surplus electricity generated by residents with their own solar power capacity, and more effective development of battery storage technology to better husband power as it enters our grid. There is always more that could be done. What cannot be accepted is cautiously riding with a status quo, falling short of necessary action to remediate and hopefully counter the deleterious effects of climate change in our community and environment. This is not a matter of aesthetics or morality. It is about our actual continued survival in the family of life on Earth. Thank you.

Thank you. Matthew and Paul.

Madam Mayor and City Council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. First, I want to extend a sincere welcome to our new City Council members. Fort Collins is a community that thrives on thoughtful leadership, collaboration, and a shared commitment to building a city that works for everyone. Stepping into public service is no small decision, and our community is grateful for your willingness to bring your time, your judgment, and your voice to the table. We're glad that you're here. I also want to express appreciation to the entire city council, new and returning, for your continued investment in recreation across Fort Collins. Our recreation system is more than a set of buildings and parks. It is part of the social and physical infrastructure that keeps this community healthy, connected, and resilient. Facilities like EPIC, the Southeast Community Center, which is on the docket tonight, and our parks are anchors for families, athletes, seniors, and newcomers alike. As a Fort Collins area swim team parent, a Fort Collins... Silver

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an investment in the long-term well-being of our city. As Fort Collins continues to grow, our recreation spaces become more valuable and our sense of community grows with it. Thank you for recognizing the importance for keeping recreation a priority in your planning and budgeting. I look forward to the work ahead and the continued partnership between residents and the council as we shape the future of this remarkable city. Thank you. Thank you. Paul and

And then Reese. Hi, I'm Paul. I'm an organizer with the Community for Sustainable Energy. I live in Longmont, so tonight I'm going to be reading a letter from a Fort Collins resident.

Dear Mayor Francis and Councilman Potiondi, I'm writing as a Fort Collins resident to better understand the city's current energy strategy, particularly as it relates to the balance between new natural gas infrastructure and investment in distributed energy resources, such as solar, storage, and vehicle-to-grid systems. I recently came across a statement attributed to the city manager indicating that solar on city buildings can achieve approximately a 10% annual return on investment.

If that is accurate, it raises an important question. Why are there still numerous city-owned buildings that have not yet implemented solar or completed energy efficiency upgrades? At the same time, there are ongoing discussions about added natural gas capacity to maintain reliability as we transition away from coal. Given the city's climate commitments, I would like to better understand how these decisions are being evaluated relative to scalable alternatives. Specifically, I am requesting clarity on the following. What analysis has been conducted comparing new natural gas infrastructure to distributed energy storage and demand side solutions in terms of cost, emissions, and long-term risk? What is the current timeline for bringing all city-owned buildings into compliance with proposed building performance standards?

Which specific solar and efficiency projects for city facilities are currently planned, funded, or delayed, and why? If solar investments on city buildings are expected to generate positive returns, what are the barriers to accelerating development? How is the city working with the Platte River Power Authority to prioritize non-fossil fuel reliability solutions before committing to additional gas infrastructure? I support solutions that improve reliability while reducing long-term costs and emissions. However, if distributed energy and efficiency investments are demonstrably cost-effective, it is not clear why those opportunities are not being pursued more aggressively, particularly within city operations where Fort Collins has the opportunity to lead. When you meet with city staff next week, we're asking you to ask direct questions and get direct answers. Thank you.

Thank you. Reese and then Dylan.

Hi, I'm Reese. I've been organizing the voices of Fort Collins community members for the past three months with the Fort Collins Community for Sustainable Energy. I'm going to read some of an email written by a supporter that echoes the desires of many other community members we have spoken to. Dear Council, I'm writing as a Fort Collins resident and voter who supported the 2023 climate action sales tax increase. My primary concern is the cost effectiveness and climate spending. While I understand there may be multiple considerations when selecting projects,

I believe climate tax revenue should prioritize initiatives that reduce the most CO2 emissions per dollar invested.

I was disappointed to learn that the 2024 budget allocated climate tax funds to projects with relatively high costs per ton of CO2 reduced, such as outdoor lighting replacements and electric utility cart conversions.

While these projects may have other merits, they represent expensive approaches to carbon reduction.

More concerning, the city only funded one of 34 identified solar projects, despite city manager noting that solar installations provide 10% positive annual cost savings. This suggests we're passing over projects that both reduce emissions and save taxpayer money in favor of projects that may not meet a reasonable cost-effective threshold.

I respectfully request that City Council establish clear cost-effectiveness criteria for climate tax expenditures,

such as maximum cost per ton of CO2 reduced, and prioritize projects that offer both emissions reductions and positive financial returns, particularly solar installations. I'm asking City Council to ask City staff direct questions in order to get direct answers. Thank you.

Thank you, Dylan. And then Kim.

Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Dylan. I live here in Fort Collins and I have been organizing with the community for sustainable energy since February 1st. I have spoken to 150 constituents. 40 of them wrote letters to city council. I'm going to read one of those. I live here in Fort Collins and move my family here in large part because of the quality of the community and school system. I am also a business owner, so I tend to look at decisions through the lenses of resource allocation, ROI, and long-term sustainability. I am writing regarding on how the city is budgeting funds for the climate tax. At a high level, I am supportive of investing in climate-related initiatives, but I think it's critical that those investments are grounded in cost-effectiveness, especially when we're using taxpayer dollars. From what I've seen, it's not clear that cost-effectiveness has been a primary driver in how funds have been allocated so far. For example, some projects appear to carry a very high cost per unit of emission reductions, while others, like solar, may offer measurable savings and positive returns over time, yet are underutilized. In any other context, whether businesses or household decision-making, we would prioritize the highest return on investment opportunities first, especially when resources are limited. It seems reasonable that the city should approach climate spending the same way. We want to know, will cost efficiency be considered when budgeting our climate tax dollars? Please ask city staff for direct, please ask them direct questions and get direct responses.

Thank you for your time. Thank you, Kim. And then Max.

I'm not Kim. Kim here. All right, Max, followed by Peggy. Sounds good.

Good afternoon. My name is Max and I'm speaking on behalf of the Community for Sustainable Energy. I will be reading an email from one of your constituents and then I will be asking a few follow up questions.

Dear Councilwoman Hoven, as part of your discussion on the climate tax through April 28th Council meeting, it would be helpful to frame future investments in climate projects tied to the 15-cent sales tax approved in 2023 using a cost-effectiveness lens. For instance, Fort Collins has approved previous climate projects with a very high cost per ton of avoided CO2 emissions

such as the green outdoor lighting project and the electric utility cars project. The City Manager has previously stated that the investment in solar projects yields a 10% annual cost savings rate as compared to traditional power sources.

This seems like a prime candidate for future investment on our climate project funds. Factoring cost effectiveness into future investments will maximize the climate impact of our limited budget in this area.

Like it was stated in the email, investment in solar projects yields a 10% annual return

on investment using estimated GHG reduction and project costs from your cost effectiveness of 2024 climate budget.

I made some back of the paper calculations on the solar PV system at Wood Street.

Using a 25-year project plan and incorporating the 10% ROI on my calculations,

the solar PV on Wood Street would reduce 540 tons of CO2.

This comes out to saving around $694.49 per ton of CO2 that's avoided. Comparing this to the climate project, such as the green outdoor lighting, which cost $1,340 per CO2 avoided, and the electric utility car project, which cost a whopping $1,330 per ton of CO2 avoided. To me, it would be a no-brainer to get the shovels on the ground on these 33 solar projects and take advantage of the Biden's Inflation Reduction Act before it expires. My two questions are why are we wasting our climate budget and why are we not investing in these solar projects? Please ask these questions and get direct answers for next week. Thank you.

Thank you. So next we have-

Mayor, Mayor, Kim was online remotely. Can we try to get her back in?

And then Peggy will come back to you. Yeah. Thank you.

Kim, are you there?

You look muted to us, Kim. Please go ahead and unmute yourself.

All right.

Yeah, go ahead, Kim. Okay. Good evening, council members and staff. As you prepare for next Tuesday's work session on strategic funding of our climate future, I'd like to suggest a couple of ideas. First, when deChinatown-International Districting on how to spend the climate tax money designated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, look for projects that will reduce the most carbon emission with the least amount of money. This will stretch taxpayer dollars to achieve the most good. I'm not sure if this has been a metric by which projects have been chosen, but it should be a major consideration. Second, although the City Council did not succeed in passing a building performance standard in the last session, it should still be a priority to get this done. Building performance standards can reduce energy by 20%, provide healthier air, greater resilience, reduce energy bills, and new job opportunities for those working in the clean energy sector. While the city is working on passing new building performance standards, we could adopt improved standards for municipal buildings in Fort Collins. This would allow the city to demonstrate leadership and save taxpayer dollars at the same time. Help for reducing energy use in municipal buildings is available from the Colorado Energy Office, which provides grants, loans, rebates, and financing options for government entities. The Colorado Clean Energy Fund can also help finance energy performance contracting. Some energy projects may save enough money on monthly bills to finance the upfront costs of the project. That seems like a no-brainer. City leaders can look to Boulder and Denver as examples of municipalities who have already created building performance standards. Why not look to these Colorado cities to find a plan that is already working?

I look forward to... Thank you. Thank you, Kim. All right, Peggy, and then we'll go to Thomas. Thank you, and thank you for your service.

I was astounded when city staff did not institute mandatory watering restrictions for the summer. I understand their reasoning. I understand that their reasoning. It is because we had a good year last year and the reservoir is full. My question is, what about next year? We know it will be a terrible water year. do we avoid conservation this year and just hope we won't have an emergency next year? Mandatory restrictions are not draconian. Watering a lawn two days a week between 10 and 6 is what we should be doing without being told to do so. Since we can't recycle our water, we're forced to pour our highest quality drinking water on the ground. If that's the case, It should be reserved for trees and shrubs because they are our long-term investments and our partners in creating a better life. The water we use this year, well, in order to have thick, velvety lawns, parks, and playing fields, might be the water we need to drink and wash next summer. We humans rarely do something because it's right. We almost always have to be reminded by a parent or a surrogate parent to prioritize and take the long view. We live on the high plains and the rains are not coming. Drinking water has much higher purposes and life will surely go on if the lawn isn't perfect. Please direct staff to institute mandatory restrictions and encourage citizens to report violations thank you thank you and Tom could not make it so you can go on to do okay thank you Peggy Julie and

then Michelle hi good evening City Council and staff thank you for the opportunity to be here and to speak I'm personally interested tonight in speaking about sorry I'm personally interested as to whether the City Council is prioritizing cost-effectiveness as you budget our climate tax dollars will you demand concrete answers by asking direct questions at the meeting on April 28th will the city put a cap on the cost per the co2 unit reduced as qualifier for the 2050 climate tax funding will you demand direct and concise answers for all of us transparency another issue is recently I was at Fort Collins utilities department event called conservation that pays and the city gave away these timers just a second for hoses which I found out you're not supposed to be leaving your hose to water your tree and walk away so they gave us a timer but right underneath it says there's lead poisoning exposure if you're gonna use this I don't think that's something that the city should be handing out for free also all the other things that they handed out were plastic which is something we're trying to reduce overall and last but not least we're not going away free Palestine and please be say something against the genoChinatown-International Districte for the entire community and especially our children to prove to them that we are all against genoChinatown-International Districte. Thank you. I'll leave this for you.

Just a kind reminder that we don't have clapping in chambers.

Thank you. Michelle, and then Devin.

Hi. Michelle Gilbert, longtime resident of Fort Collins. I have a number of concerns regarding the implementation of our 81 81 81 81 81 81 81 81 81 81 Silver Silver

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of coal plants allegedly to service energy intensive projects like data centers. I would like the city to ask at next week, will they acknowledge that the 2030 goals will not be met? And if so, why isn't the city addressing these changing circumstances and demands by developing its own renewable generation and battery storage within the Fort Collins? Will the city commit to pursuing some of the 33 previously identified and cost effective solar projects and working with the Colorado Energy Office and CCEF to help achieve Fort Collins climate goals within our budget? And will the city acknowledge that reducing carbon emissions enhances affordability through increased efficiency, decreased reliance on volatile fuel prices, and the reduction of health and disaster-related costs due to climate change? finally I would like to know if the city will acknowledge that sustainable sustainability is a priority and will they commit to projects that get the most COT reduction for the best price and make the best use of other available government funds to achieve our climate goals thank you thank you Devin and then

Gail. Hi, I'm Devin Walsh. I'm a recent transplant from another state. I live on Shields just east of City Park. I don't want to throw too much shade on the state I came from, but it's really great to be part of such a high-functioning community here. Thank you so much for what you've been doing. I'm going to be reading a letter from Sean Frey of Cornell Avenue. I'm writing as a concerned Fort Collins resident to urge you to prioritize cost effectiveness when budgeting for climate action. In 2023, voters approved a 15-cent sales tax specifically for climate initiatives. I was disappointed to learn that in 2024, the city funded projects at costs of $1,340 a ton and $1,330 a ton of CO2 reduced, while only funding one of 34 identified solar projects, which the city manager notes has 10% positive annual cost savings. This suggests the tax is being used to fund projects that couldn't otherwise be justified in the budget, rather than maximizing climate impact per dollar spent. By contrast, distributed energy resources like rooftop solar, EVs, and smart thermostats have been shown to be 40-60% more cost-effective than the traditional utility model Fort Collins currently employs. DERs also reduce pollution, support local businesses and homeowners, and keep more money circulating in our community, potentially $125 million annually that currently leaves as economic leakage. As you discussed the climate tax at the upcoming April 28th Council meeting, I respectfully ask that you require cost-effectiveness analysis before approving climate tax expenditures, priorities, prioritize high ROI projects like solar and DER programs over expensive, low-impact alternatives to find clear criteria for what qualifies as a climate project under the tax. Thank you for your service to our community.

MS. Thank you, and welcome to Fort Collins. Gail, and then Hayden.

Hello, and thank you for giving your time and energy to manage Fort Collins. I'm here to talk about financing and completion of the Fort Collins Municipal Solar Strategic Plan and generally our need to ramp up to meet our carbon neutral goals. Our local goals are even more important than ever to many of us right now. With 33 solar projects identified and nine already designed and ready to go, it seems the next step needs to happen, a consultation with the Colorado Energy Office Energy Performance Contract Program to determine how the projects can be financed. My understanding is the finance options may be very positive for the city. My request would be that next week the Council ask staff to initiate that meeting and share with C-Force and the public the results because many of us have found it impossible to find the city's plan for upcoming projects on the website. I also ask that these 33 projects, along with others considered, be analyzed for their cost effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions so we know we're spending money wisely. Lastly, as an electric vehicle owner, for the car that I believe can be used to store energy and then be transferred back to the grid, I would love to see staff find out what the vehicle-to-grid energy potential and Fort Collins is. I understand Boulder has started to do this, and it may already be benefiting them. Please ask staff next week about that possibility as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Hayden, and then Olivia.

Okay. I'm Hayden Johnson, and I'm here following a meeting we had with Councilmember Amy Hoven last week to bring to the attention of the rest of the City Council some issues happening at CSU. Students on campus are experiencing extreme emotional distress and fear for their physical safety both on and off campus due to targeted attacks and harassment from a registered student organization called Rams for Israel. Rams for Israel's student leadership has engaged in several instances of misconduct as outlined by CSU's Code of Conduct. A student on campus has been doxxed by Rams for Israel via collaborative social media posts with national pages such as Israel War Room. These posts included personal information around ethnicity, birthplace, and discourse asking for the student's home address. CSU code of conduct prohibits abuse of behavior such as threats, intimidation, coercion, or other unwelcome behavior through any method of communication directed at an individual or individuals that is so severe, persistent, or pervasive so that the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person's academic or work performance or a person's ability to participate in or benefit from the university programs, services, opportunities, or activities when viewed through both an objective and subjective standard, knowingly furnishing false information to any university official instructor office or organization or of any applications. This doxing campaign against a CSU student has infringed on students' academic performance and their ability to participate in university programs due to concerns for the safety on their campus. This is not an isolated inChinatown-International Districtent. since April 1st. There's been about five inChinatown-International Districtent reports regarding the same organizations coming up, harassing students, yelling at students, trying to gain personal information, as well as the doxing of a faculty member at CSU. So I'll urge the rest of the council to please take action on this and ensure that community members are feeling safe at their university. Thank you. Thank you. Olivia? Hi, my name is Olivia Kerr. Thank you, council, for hearing me. I live on Drake Road. I just have a few questions concerning our climate future reports The city is our climate future reports compare Fort Collins to a few other communities such as

Lakewood and Boulder but do not include comparisons to climate leaders or nationwide trends or to places that spend no money on Climate action or cost-effective metrics What other peer cities are we comparing to and how do you select those cities? How do we learn our best practices if we don't compare to the leaders? Would you classify international cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, who have some of the best decarbonization models through district heating and building standards as an aspirational benchmark? And how does this affect how you evaluate Fort Collins' progress? It may be beneficial to compare to these leaders and consider their models. Thank you. So please ask direct questions next week and get direct answers. Thank you. Christina and then Ben.

Hi, council. Oh, my gosh. My name is Christina. I'm a member of District 2, and I'm also supposed to claim that I'm a member of the Air Quality Advisory Board. I'm speaking today on a personal note, not on behalf of the board.

I'm here because I really, really care about the climate and it's Earth Week. I'm somebody who's always had really severe climate anxiety.

Like I'm never going to have kids. And a huge part of why I've chosen not to have kids is because I have such bad climate anxiety.

And I've deChinatown-International Districted to stay in Fort Collins instead of the little tiny podunk town that I came from, partly because I view Fort Collins as a leader in the climate movement. And I really want to uphold that standard in our community. One of my goals tonight is just to get you guys to ask really good questions during your presentation next week. One example could be how the OCF is measuring the success of its investments made under the strategic funding plan. Like, is there going to be a standard for like CO2 per dollar spent or air pollution that's not emitted because of the investments that are made? So I really want you guys to like nail that down and understand how much safety is being made per dollar. And another specific request that I would like to make is that you ask your staff to bring forward the building performance standards again. The staff spent two years making it. It's a really, really cool program. It's actually one of the most impactful things that our community could do. And I don't think that the last council fully understood the financial implications of this program and the role that state investments could have made and how this program could actually make housing more affordable going forward. So please consider that. Thank you very

much. Thank you. Ben, and then we'll go to Jamie remotely. Hi. Hello. My name is Ben DiNardo,

and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Growing up in Fort Collins, I know how much the city talks about being a sustainable community, but I'm worried we're not walking the walk. We've heard today about many direct questions for the council to ask their staff next week this evening. While closing Rawhide does work towards our climate, the coal part of Rawhide does work towards our climate goals, it's a one-time reduction. Being replaced with five gas turbines doesn't give me hope that we'll continue to meet our emission targets in future years. I don't see us taking the steps we need to make long-term reductions. These need larger infrastructure investments, which aren't cheap. But by spending more now, we may save much more in the future. Smaller investments may seem like they're offering cost-effective reductions, but when looking on a longer timescale, large investments that may need years to deliver are what we need to meet our final climate goals rather than always scrambling to meet our next

climate goal. I absolutely support investing in the projects such as those described today, such as rooftop solar or the building performance standards. But we also need to invest in larger infrastructure projects, such as wind, and even working with other communities to secure carbon-free baseload from nuclear energy so we can finally free ourselves from using natural gas as our baseload.

I hope this council will consider many of the questions asked today and ask their staff specific questions when it comes to what the best way to use the revenue generated from the Fort Collins climate tax going forward. I hope in the future we can finally be the sustainable community I was told we were growing up. Thank you. Thank you. Go to Jamie remotely.

Go ahead, Jamie.

Hello.

Good evening, Council. My name is Jamie Blanchard Pulling, owner of Compost Queen, the only food waste hauling and processing facility in Larimer County. As the city's contractor for the current food waste composting pilot, I want to thank you and city staff for taking decisive action on food waste diversion from the landfill, and I am excited to see that continue with this council. Food waste diversion has been a long time coming, and I am happy to report it is going quite well. We are nearly halfway through the one-year program, and the results are clear. We have 100% residential participation and are generating the critical data needed to shape our city's future composting infrastructure. However, this momentum faces a deadline.

The pilot is scheduled to end this October, meaning 600 household participants will lose their city stipend and likely stop composting due to cost.

Continuing the habit of waste separation is instrumental in long-term success of composting within our city. Given that voters passed the CCIP tax with a $7 million earmarked for, quote, scaling community-wide composting, and with next week's discussion on our Climate Futures strategic funding plan, now is the time to act. I am requesting that you extend and expand this pilot.

There have been multiple participants already asking if the pilot will be extended and others asking if it will be expanded because the pilot was full before they could become a participant.

Additionally, broadening the scope to more households and businesses will provide more robust data, ensuring the city's long-term infrastructure investments are based on proven success. We are already seeing a major spike in diversion rates due to the pilot, so let's not let this trend die in October.

I look forward to sharing our full six-month analysis next month to prove the pilot's impact. Thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Israiyah?

Good evening. My name is Israiyah Steyer from District 3, and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Northern Colorado Privacy Coalition. Tonight I wanted to address and hopefully clear up some confusion I've seen going around about our ballot initiative. So I have seen a lot of people circulating very long lists of things that surveillance technologies would be supposedly covered by our ballot initiative, with the implication being that we are opposed to them or that we seek to ban all of these surveillance technologies.

And that is simply not true. To put it very simply, we are seeking transparency and accountability. Namely, we think that... Zsha. All instances of government surveillance should be fully documented and explained to the people who are being surveilled and the people who are being surveilled and the people who are being surveilled deserve to have a voice as to whether the costs of these technologies outweigh the benefits. For many of these, and to give an example, the wastewater surveillance that was presented earlier, we had a wonderful presentation. I am and I think that almost everybody here would be fully in support of that. I do not think you, I don't see why anyone would be concerned with putting that to a vote of the people because that would pass with 90% in favor. So all of these things we simply want you to explain.

When you have a full page list of all the different ways that you are tracking the citizens, people deserve an explanation.

They deserve to say this is what's being collected. This is what data is being collected. This is who has access to the data. This is where the data is being stored, and people have a right to deChinatown-International Districte. And for many of those things, the cost will outweigh the benefits, but for many of them, it may not. And it's also very important to recognize that the sum total of these,

sometimes two pieces of surveillance that might not be concerning in and of themselves,

might be concerning when put together if the entity thanked you.

Thank you. Adam, and then Blake.

Mayor and Council, I'm Adam Hirschhorn from District 2. You've got 99 problems. Let's cluster them. Because of the Iran War, pre-February levels of oil production, LNG production, and fertilizer production worldwide will not be seen again this decade.

Every state-sponsored and criminal actor is breaking into systems like Ocean 11, all thanks to AI assistance.

and digital surveillance means that through Flock Safety or any other big box firm you choose,

Palantir's Gotham system keeps an eye on each and every person individually or whosoever controls that system.

This presents a choice. Find a way to draw the curtain or get used to being on stage. In this trying time, the flexibility of a 90-day fuel reserve, acceleration of systems that work, the food banks, the NoCo community store, the Pleasant Valley pipeline, and the leverage we have as a municipal majority in North Puder irrigation.

These all give us wiggle room in the crisis. But I definitely recommend that we air grab critical city systems against all outside cyber vectors.

On the world stage, it's easy to see our guided missiles, dual-use AI, and the essential services that we provide to the Israeli prison system. That's a system now authorized to execute on the basis of raids without due process under the Death Penalty Act of 2026.

You are forewarned of the complicity this might create according to your duties under the Proxmire Act.

Failure to do so invites blowback within the crisis that I've described

Thank you, Blake and then Alex

Good evening counselors, I wanted to start by saying thank you for all of your continued work in our community

I'm here tonight as an organizer with the Fort Collins community for sustainable energy

We all know that federal dollars are quickly drying up, especially for climate funding programs.

And our state is particularly constrained in its ability to fill those gaps. This is why it's more important now than ever.

Why did I write that? Sorry. This is why it's more important now than ever to prioritize cost effectiveness when you're budgeting our tax dollars.

In 2023, Fort Collins voters approved a 50 cent or half cent sales tax. And as we've heard tonight, some of the money from that sales tax has gone to programs that have questionable effect on fighting climate change. I find this especially frustrating when the city has 33 identified and designed solar projects that would have a positive return on investment, saving the city money while reducing our carbon emissions. So I would encourage you all going into your work session next week where you're set to discuss the spending under our climate funding or our climate future. I would encourage you all to prioritize and expedite those projects with positive return on investment and to ask city staff to assess all funding under the 2023 climate tax based on how much carbon is reduced per dollar spent. Thank you.

Thank you. Alex and then Ryan. Hello, my name is Alex Carlson. I am a resident of District 1. I'm here to speak today about the Flock cameras and really the whole category of ALPR cameras. First of all, I'd like to thank council for organizing the working session with Fort Collins Police Services to learn a little bit more about how those cameras are deployed. I did want to follow up with a quick update. It's been less than 60 days, and there's already been a little bit of a scandal in Loveland. I know we talked about how we share with local agencies and restrict kind of farther out access. The city of Loveland has been in the news because they shared their flock credentials or provision credentials for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Those credentials were then shared with ICE to run immigration-related queries. I know there was some talk about the strength of the audit and logging system. I think it's worth highlighting that in the news article that came out about this with Nine News, the audit report shows that the queries were run by first initial A, last name Bro. It seems like maybe there's some work to be done on the audit side.

In the same period of time that's passed, the city also excitedly produced a press release talking about a new drones as a first responder program. And I feel, at least from my perspective, it feels as though the city might be losing the plot. I haven't seen a lot of people advocating for this type of surveillance being brought out in these sessions. I see lots of people against it, and it seems like we're moving full steam ahead. Lastly, I just want to highlight that I would call on council as they evaluate this to not just look at a simple vendor change. I know there's been a lot of communication about Flock. There's other competitors in the space from Axon and Motorola. They also have scandals. Motorola got in trouble for selling mugshots at a jail system in Chicago. I think we need to look at the concept and ask, is this something our city

really needs? Thank you. Thank you. Ryan, and then Maya. Hi, my name is Ryan Burns. I am a member of the Disability Advisory Board, but I am not speaking today in that capacity, and the individual views I voice here are my own. I am extremely concerned with the use of automatic license plate

readers in policing and would like to discuss them within the context of the observer effect. In investigating quantum mechanics, we have found that observation is not passive. to measure a system is to change it. When we install flock safety cameras and ALPRs, we are performing the same experiment on our city. We often hear that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. But physics tells us that observation changes the behavior of the subject, regardless of the intention of the observer. By subjecting every movement to constant automated data collection, we're not just observing our city. We're instead forcing it to collapse into a state of self-censorship. When citizens like myself know they are being tracked by an algorithm, they stop being participants in a free society and start being subjects who must curate their behavior to avoid false flags

or being bucketed into specific characteristics or being involved with specific individuals that may be illegal one day and illegal the next.

Ultimately, we are altering the fundamental character of our community through the mere act of watching it and dimming our character in the process. Thank you.

Thank you. Maya?

Hi, I'm Maya. I'm here to speak about the student harassment that has been happening at CSU in regards to Rams for Israel. Rams for Israel has dot one of our students that has worked with our student groups and has made racial comments towards another group of students.

So we filed some student reports on these and we filed some inChinatown-International Districtent reports, which that was around April 1st. Since then, there was five inChinatown-International Districtent reports and we haven't had word back from any of them. We've also spoken to our admin and we've spoken at a forum with our representative Amy Hovind. I'm so sorry. To which we were told that we should come speak here at city council. But our issue is that it's been really dangerous for students on campus. We were told to walk in groups and some students aren't attending classes. They aren't able to do things. They aren't able to even go home. It's really pressing when you have your address being leaked online. So we ask that you guys all speak to CSU admin and ask that these inChinatown-International Districtent reports are treated with urgency since people are at risk.

Thank you. I'm just going to remind everyone that I'm sorry, but clapping and snapping and cheering is not allowed in council chambers. I'm glad you're supporting each other, but we just ensure it for fairness. So if you could keep it. Otherwise, if it happens again, we're going to have to take a break and then delay the meeting. So there's lots of other ways you can show support that are silent. So I'll just ask you for that. All right, Sophia and then Spencer.

Hi. I'm talking in similar with the students that are here today about concerns about ongoing inChinatown-International Districtents impacting student safety, access, and campus climate. students, particularly black, brown, and historically marginalized students, have reported repeated concerns regarding harassment, intimidation, and targeted conduct. These concerns relate to conduct occurring in or connected to a recognized student organization called Rams for Israel. This issue is not isolated, but instead a pattern that has been raised across time and context. I am the student who was doxed by Rams for Israel. They have posted pictures of me on their Instagram page

in collaboration with national pro-Israel groups. I have been entered in a national pro-Israel database for people to dox me,

and that is why you all here,

city council members, including CSU administrators and state legislators, state legislators have received a targeted mass email campaign about me calling for my removal from school and campus life.

In contact with state senators, Kathy Kipp and Andy Bosenecker, who have also received this letter, they share my concerns about my safety on campus and are currently asking administrators to uphold student conduct standards on campus. My peers and I are here to share with our city council members how we have been impacted by violations of student conduct, such as doxing, spreading false information, and discriminatory harassment. We're here not to bypass a process, but instead to request for the process to be carried out fully and consistently and quickly. We're asking for accountability mechanisms that already exist under CSU policy to be applied consistently. Thank you. Is that it? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Spencer and then Tyler. Hi, I'm Spencer Burris from District 5 speaking on behalf of the Northern Colorado Privacy Coalition. Last week, I spoke to different groups of IT and cybersecurity professionals and received strong support for further controls on surveillance technology. Technology is changing fast. In the last few weeks in particular, it was demonstrate how artificial intelligence is capable of identifying novel and extremely concerning security holes in mature products. Many of these were in free and open source software projects built as labors of love, mostly by people who are not paid to work on them. Companies, unlike volunteers, don't have the same incentives to fix securities holes as open source software does, and often deprioritize fixing issues and neglect security in favor of more marketable features. We must be more cautious than ever with what data is collected or can be via unauthorized access by malicious parties, perhaps wielding advanced security exploit discovery techniques. Cameras such as Flock have the potential to identify the location of almost anyone. We have documented cases of stalking from authorized users, but we must also consider what is possible when these devices are accessed by unauthorized users. Previous approaches to security may no longer be adequate to protect us from the possible dangerous consequences of the changing cybersecurity landscape, which is why further regulation of surveillance technologies is more important than ever. Our ballot initiatives seek to provide this. One thing that I'd like to clarify about our initiative is that it does not ban any particular type of technology, but only asks for voter approval and further transparency. If wastewater surveillance for disease monitoring and prevention were put on the ballot for voter approval, I would expect voters to enthusiastically approve this system. Personally, I am not particularly concerned about this type of surveillance, nearly as much as I am about cameras such as FLOC and similar ALPRs. Thank you.

Thank you. Tyler and then Dan.

Thanks for hearing me speak. Tyler Davidson, District 5. I'm usually here to speak about FLOC cameras and I'll get to that.

But first I would like to speak in support of the Community for Sustainable Energy.

Next week you're talking about our climate future.

So please ask staff directly if they'll measure cost-effectiveness of climate funding proposals and prioritize those that are most cost-effective.

I think other people have spoken on that tonight. Okay, now on to Flock. I would like to share just today's headline. Today's headline. Today's headline. Today's headline. A Thornton police officer, a detective was just discovered to have made almost 20,000 requests. Let me say that again. 20,000 requests on flock camera data in just the last few months. What's he doing? Why are there no limitations on this? Why don't we have any transparency? Why don't we have any transparency? Why don't we have any transparency? Why don't we have any transparency? is there no accountability? I think we're all beginning to get a lot more aware of the deleterious effects of surveillance and its potential for abuses in our lives. These other students here were just speaking about how they were put on a database and doxed. Can you imagine what that might look like if it was put into conjunction with flock-like information? We are rapidly descending into a panopticon authoritarian state.

We have no idea where this goes and where it ends. We must have transparency. We must have accountability. We must have it soon. We're here to take a stand against FLOC. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Dan? Yes, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I'm a citizen in District 5 who cares deeply about climate solutions, specifically those that prioritize data-driven impacts on climate change per dollar and time invested. I'm also previously a cost-effective net zero home builder, and as a net zero home builder who sold attainable homes to the public, I know that ROI is everything. Time and funding is finite, so data-driven prioritization is really critical to enacting actual climate solutions. The Fort Collins Climate Tax represents an incredible opportunity to address climate change, as does our climate future. To maximize that impact, it's vital that actions be prioritized based on data and chosen to maximize climate ROI. So I'm asking you all to please focus on metrics, science, and use of funds that have the greatest impact on actual climate change reduction, not just those that are intuitive or feel good to enact. This is our moment to use funding and to improve our climate future. We can't afford to waste it. Thank you all for your service. Thank you. Jared and then Tyler.

My name is Jared. I live in District 6. And I'd like to start off by expressing my enthusiasm for this new council and some of the directions that things have gone in, like the efforts to improve our housing supply, efforts to add paid parking downtown, and support of our recreation in our parks and open spaces. and I think that Fort Collins makes a valiant effort on sustainability but we could always do better given the state of the world and the state of the climate so with that in mind I would like to see with regards to our climate future a dashboard with a way to compare the cost effectiveness of different projects that the city is considering and specifically the co2 per dollar spent uh co2 reduction per dollar spent um of course there's limited tax funding and that's a central barrier to many sustainable sustainability efforts um and so that's all the more important that we know that our money is being well spent. I'd like to finish by reading a brief email as a constituent. I'd like to thank you for serving on the city council. Would you please set a 2026 priority directing the city operations department to work with Colorado Energy Office programs to maximize energy efficiency and solar potential on city property? And then I'm aware that We've made some efforts for commercial buildings, but I'd like to see that with our municipal buildings

Thank you Tyler

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Tyler Bigler I'm a resident of district 6 and I'm on the leadership team for Strong Towns Fort Collins I'm here tonight to speak in support of the accessory dwelling unit grants. I prefer the term backyard cottages or granny flats ad uses jargon building a library of pre-approved ADU designs is a practical lasting step that can the city can take on housing right now building a backyard cottage can be expensive slow and stressful you're asking a regular homeowner often someone trying to house an aging parent a grown child or a long-term renter to take on a process that most people can't realistically navigate that's a real barrier and it filters out exactly the families that this kind of housing is meant to help a pre-approved design library changes that it gives homeowners a clearer starting point a faster path forward and a better sense of what it will actually cost. Add in the fee waivers this grant would fund, and you've lowered both the dollar cost and the stress of building an ADU. I want to be upfront about what this grant is and isn't. It's a starting step, a small set of pre-approved designs and limited pool of fee waivers to help the first homeowners get to the door. It's not a permanent program, and it won't build hundreds of ADUs on its own, but it leaves behind something that lasts, a design library that keeps helping homeowners long after the grant runs out. several places across the country have already done this and they're seeing real results. ADUs are not going to solve our housing crisis on their own but they're a solid first step gentle small-scale housing that uses the lots infrastructure in neighborhoods that we already have. If we're serious about housing affordability we should make the easy things easy. This grant does exactly what that does exactly that and I hope in the future the library can be further expanded to provide more pre-approved options for residents. I urge you to approve and support this initiative and I want to thank staff for

bringing it forward thank you for your time thank you that is everyone we have signed up for public comment tonight so thank you everyone and we will now end public comment um I just want to make a remark that we will have a work session on flock and alpr on May 12th and a council memo will be coming out by April 30th if you don't know how to find memos that go to council there's a slew of staff in the back who can get you to the white right website so but Does council have any comment? Yeah, council member Pat Yandy.

Yeah, thank you mayor. And I wanted to get in here quickly because I wanted to thank our scouts who are here tonight. You guys hung in there for a lot of comments and had incredible etiquette in the meeting. So thank you for being here. And just so you know, anybody in the community is welcome to participate in public comments. So if ever you have something you'd like to share, please show up and you can join in on the action. Okay, so thanks for being here. And thanks to everybody who spoke tonight. A number of the topics are upcoming, as people mentioned, for us to be able to have some in-depth conversation. And our mayor already discussed the conversation about surveillance technology. I just wanted to ask staff really quickly, can somebody speak to timelines for water restriction decisions? I did speak with some of our utilities folks at Earth Day, and it was very helpful to hear when we receive the data, we make those decisions on and I think with our summer or our winter having been truncated it seems like our timelines are a little that we're

getting the data later than yes describing this yes typically we would

have that a little bit earlier I'm looking at our one water executive director she can come up and maybe add a little more information but I expect to see those recommendations coming to me either later this week or early next week at which point then we'll determine what our approach is going to be but

Nicole anything you would add very well put city manager thank you thank you

councilmember Padiandi yes northern water just recently issued their allotment for the year and we base our restriction recommendation on that so So again, because the northern system was built to help get agriculture through droughts, they're responding a little differently than maybe some of the other region, the other partners, water partners in this region.

Thank you so much. Can you speak a little bit to about, and you don't need to go in depth, maybe a follow-up in writing would be helpful, but I am curious about the process for when we do in fact restrict watering of lawns.

Yes, we will have that in the recommendation. We'll have all the different levels and what triggers those levels.

Okay. And when can we expect that again? I apologize.

You should see it next week. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Other council? Councilmember Fudge?

Thank you. I'll echo the thanks to everyone who came out and spoke your minds tonight. We really appreciate the feedback and the input. I also want to say congrats to the Cub Scouts who stuck it out through the meeting. I myself was a wee blow, and now I'm up here on this dais, so stick with it, and you may be up here someday. Just with regard to our climate future and the funding, the Natural Resources Advisory Board met last week, Their first meeting with the new board on April 15th. They walked through some of the funding options We had a good discussion around that and that board is their passionate and their expertise and their backgrounds in environmental issues was Astounding and very impressive. So I'll be interested to see what they have to say as well. So thanks again

Anyone else councilmember Hovitt. Thank you very much and I too will express my gratitude to the fourth grade Cub Scouts who visited tonight. I was lucky enough to spend some time with the troop earlier, and they asked great questions, so thank you. I'm glad you were able to hang in there with us. And I also want to thank everybody for making comments regarding the topics that we will be discussing soon, and I specifically want to thank the CSU students for attending my listening session last week raising these concerns with me and I want to convey to them that I have shared their requests with the people that they have asked me to share them with so I'm doing what I can to make sure that these community members feel safe thank you mayor

Proton yeah thank you I won't belabor any of the points that have been said so far, but I do want to ask if staff, um, and we won't see your presentation of course, till Thursday, but for the, our climate future, if there could just be a couple of slides, one or two about the how and why the decisions were made up until this point. Cause I do remember conversations about trade-offs, but man, that was a lot of, um, ordinances ago. And I don't quite remember the conversations that happened a couple of years ago about that. And then I also, just wanted to plug, yes, the ALPRs and other surveillance stuff is coming forward on May 12th. We have this committee called Futures Committee that is kind of the more philosophical committee of all the ones you can be on. Personally, it's one of my favorites. I'm just the alternate this year, but I did get to go last week where we learned about something called causal layered analysis and we walked through the surveillance discussion which really helped frame some things and helped direct at least in my mind like where I would like to see us go and how we can go with the community so I'm really looking forward to larger discussions outside of the immediate need to address the technologies we do have about what it does look like for really technology in general in many ways and how that is handled at a municipal level. Also keeping a really close eye on some bills that are happening at the legislative session as they will affect, they already have affected many of the things that we can and can't do and we'll also do that in the future. So appreciate everyone keeping that top of mind. And that is it for me. Thanks. Anyone else?

Okay. Seeing none. The city manager did pull item number seven from the consent calendar. Does anyone on council wish to pull any other items? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar minus item number seven?

Okay. I move to adopt the consent calendar, items one through 23 minus item seven.

Is there a second? Second.

We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem and a second by Council Member Patiandi. Any further discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Frances? Yes. Pina Taro? Yes. Hoven? Yes. Pariandi? Yes. Fudge? Yes. Conway? Yes. All right.

That passes 6-0. Do Councilmembers have any comments on the consent calendar? All right. Seeing none, there are no staff reports tonight. Do Councilmembers have any reports? Yeah, Councilmember Pariandi.

Thanks, Mary. And I'll be super quick. I just have three things I wanted to mention since it's been a couple weeks since we had an opportunity. community. Not this past weekend, but the weekend before was the Northern Colorado Intertribal Pow Wow at Northside Aslan Community Center, which was an incredible event as always. This past weekend, Earth Day celebration at Odell's. Again, always delightful. And we got great weather this year for the first time in quite a long time. And then last but not least, I wanted to recognize our assistant city manager Rupa Venkatesh who recently received a trailblazer award at the Colorado City County manager Association and for those of you who've had the chance to work with Rupa she's amazing and very deserving of all any and all recognition So congrats congrats to Rupa

Thank you other council members Council Member Hogan.

Thank you very much. I did have the good fortune of hosting two listening sessions, one we've already discussed and then the other one occurred during Earth Day on Saturday. So thanks to everyone who showed up and shared their thoughts with me and I just really appreciate staying connected to the community. So reach out anytime. I too had the great pleasure of attending the NSIPA Pow Wow and it was just a wonderful occasions so it was great to be a part of. I also attended with Councilmember Puddy. Zhekiddi, the Women in Science Symposium at CSU that focused solely on climate change. So everything that we're talking about and that is upcoming, I'm reflecting on so many of the nuggets that the speaker shared and I hope to take that with me as we move forward. So thank you. Anyone else? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to item number seven, which is the second reading appropriating prior reserves to broadband capital.

Is there a staff presentation for this item?

There's not. Again, we're recommending and requesting that you postpone this indefinitely.

Is there anyone online or in the audience who would like to make a comment? Seeing none, do council members have any questions? All right. Seeing none, is there a motion to indefinitely postpone ordinance number 29?

I move to indefinitely postpone ordinance number 29-2026 appropriating prior year reserves to broadband capital projects and related are in public places.

Second.

We have a motion by Mayor Potem and a second by Councilmember Pottyandi. Any further discussion? Seeing none, whether clerk please call the roll.

Pina Taro? Yes. Hoven? Yes. Pottyandi? Yes. Fudge? Yes. Conway? Yes. Francis?

Yes. That passes 6-0. We will now move on to our planned discussion items. I have a declared conflict of interest related to items number 24 and 5 due to my role at the Department of Local Affairs, who is a granting agency. So I am leaving the chambers down return for item number 26 and mayor Potem will take over

All right, thank you mayor Francis Okay, so moving on to item number 24 Is there a staff presentation for this item?

We do not have a staff presentation But staff are here and available to answer any questions if council has them okay, and did we have anyone sign up to speak on this item?

Did not do council members have any questions or comments?

Okay, great. Is there a motion? All right. I move to adopt on first reading ordinance number 45, 2026, making a supplemental appropriation of Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant revenue to develop a new Fort Collins housing action plan.

Second. All right. We have a motion by Councilmember Fudge and seconded by Councilmember Patiandi. Is there any further discussion? Okay, will the clerk please call roll?

Hoven? Yes. Paduyandi? Yes. Fudge? Yes. Conway? Yes. Pina Taro?

Yes. That motion passes 5 to 0. We will move on to item number 25. Okay, is there a staff presentation for this item?

Again, no planned presentation, but staff is here available for questions.

Okay, did anyone sign up on this item? No. Okay. And council members, questions, concerns? All right, do I hear a motion?

I move to adopt resolution 2026-062, supporting the accessory dwelling unit grant application.

Second. All right, we have a motion by council member Fudge, seconded by council member Patiandi. Is there any further discussion? All right. Can the clerk please call roll? Padiandi. Yes. Fudge. Yes. Conway. Yes. Pina Taro. Yes. Hovind. Yes. Okay. That motion passes five to zero. All right. Before we move on to the rest of our discussion items, we're going to take about a 15 minute break. So we'll be back just a little bit before. Let's see. What is that math? We'll be about five before eight. We'll be back. Thank you.

we are on to our next discussion item which is item number 26 is there a staff presentation

we do have a staff presentation for this item i am going to turn it over to caleb whites our chief financial officer to walk us through this item good evening mayor and council it's a pleasure to be here i'll try and move quickly as i know we've had a long evening already

We're here tonight to discuss the council adopting an ordinance so we can prepare for issuing debt for the Southeast Community Center. In the next item, you're going to hear about some of the partnerships and moving towards ratification of those as we move forward with this important project.

So the action tonight for council is to consider the ordinances, related agreements, to be able to issue a certificate of participation or COP that will be backed by the 2050 Parks, Recreation and Climate Tax that was approved by the voters in 2023.

So just for review, what is up here on this slide is illustrative of the funding stack that was presented to the council and approved by the council on November 3rd of last year.

So an action of the previous council.

The total project is currently estimated to be $76.5 million. This includes approximately $27.2 million of appropriations from the prior 10-year Community Capital Improvement Program, or CCIP. Also includes approximately $10.3 million of reserves from the 2050 tax, $1 million from recreation reserves, and a DOLA grant for $2 million. dollars. Additionally, when the council approved this in November, proceeds from a certificate of participation of $36 million were included in the funding stack. So just a little bit of groundwork. What is a certificate of participation? So COPs are a very common form of financing for public facilities in Colorado. Instead of issuing traditional voter-approved debt, the city enters into a lease agreement that is tied to a public asset. Investors purchase a share of the lease revenues, which fund the project up front, and then the city makes annual lease payments over time. So in a nutshell, instead of borrowing directly, we're essentially leasing the asset over time and at the end of the term, the leased asset is owned by the city.

so this here is just a very broad summary of the terms that are included in the ordinance for your

consideration tonight a couple things to note on here first is we are purposefully working with our

financial advisors at this point to make the terms as flexible as possible so we're in the best position to capitalize on market conditions as they continue to evolve over the summer and notably

to have the timing of the issuance to line up with the guaranteed maximum price contract that we expect to have complete later this summer. So the payment term will not extend beyond 20 years,

so this is a typo in the presentation. It should say 2046. The average annual payment shall not exceed $3.9 million. That would be under a scenario where we went for a shorter debt issuance term, such as a 15-year term instead of a 20-year term, which we might consider based on what the best possible overall cost we can get from the market is. Net interest shall not exceed 5.25%. We

certainly, based on current market conditions, expect to do better than that, though obviously we are going to be subject to future fluctuations of the market over the next few months, and that the borrowing repayment will not exceed $58 million, which is what was behind that $36 million COP that was modeled in the funding stack that council approved in November of last year.

The collateral that we are recommending for this COP is the Eldora Pool and Ice Center or EPIC.

This lets us get a slightly more favorable rating on the debt potentially because it's an already complete facility that is in existence.

And then we anticipate once the Southeast Community Center is complete, we would swap the Southeast Community Center to be the collateral that backs this debt.

Finally, just a couple of the key upcoming dates. we are expecting by the end of July to have ratings agency or a credit rating from rating agencies and then proceed with a public offering at the end of July and targeting August 19th as closing and delivery of the proceeds with that I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you

we don't have anyone signed up to speak on this item so do council members have any questions or

comments seeing none all right is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 46.

i move to adopt on first reading ordinance number 46 2026 authorizing the leasing of city property and approving a site lease a lease agreement and other documents for the finance financing of the southeast community center and other capital capital improvement projects

is there a second second there's a motion by mayor pro tem and a second by councilmember pot yandy any further discussion seeing none where the clerk please call the roll fudge yes conway yes francis yes piñatero yes hoven yes potty andy yes that passes six zero all right we are on to Item number 27 is there a staff presentation for this item? There is I'm going to invite up Leanne Williams

Who is our deputy director of community services? So as people know this is a wonderful partnership? Project and with partnership comes partnership agreements. So Leanne I will turn it over to you

There we go bright green not

Light green. Okay. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council, Leanne Williams, Deputy Director, Community Services, and fortunately to be one of the project leads for the city on this. I have many, many people that have supported this project along the way. I just get to sit here tonight and talk about how awesome of a project that we're bringing to the community. Tonight, the action is really to approve the partner agreements, both with Poudre Libraries and Poudre School District. There's a number of agreements that are in the package. and we'll talk a little bit about those.

First, we're going to do a little background and context just for four new council members.

We've done a lot of work over the last,

really the last decade, but really intense work, I would say, over the last four years,

and in particular the last year we spent a lot of time

talking about this project with the public and with you all. So I wanted to bring you, our new council members, just to give you the chance to hear some of that.

So we'll talk about the timeline. Back in, it was around 2012, this project was starting to be talked about.

They did a feasibility study in 2013 that really informed our CCIP ballot.

So it was a CCIP from 2015 to 2025. That measure passed, and it was called a community center with outdoor pool. And the outdoor pool had a lot of specifics to what it had. The community center was not defined. It was scheduled to be the final large project of this ballot. There's other programs that are still going on, but this is the final large project with this capital.

Our partners wanted to bring you along on their timeline. Around the same time, Poudre Libraries was doing their master plan, strategic plan,

and identified the southeast part of the community in that plan. And then the city adopted the Recreate Master Plan that identified, again, the need for a community center and aquatics in the south part of the community. And so then right before I got here, city council requested that staff go and do an aquatic study because this facility needed an aquatic component to it.

And it kind of understood what our level of service was and what we needed to potentially bring to this facility.

And then in 2022 is really where I would say a lot of big work started to do. The aquatic study, we started to talk with you all. And there was agreement in our studies and with you all to really start talking to partners around this project.

And so we started talking with Poudre School District and Poudre Libraries around what a partnership looked like. And in the ballot, it talked about innovation and the creative spaces.

And that really was something that Poudre Libraries does really well is that innovation piece. And so they were a natural component to bring along.

And so then the partners got together and all the elected officials in each of those districts formed an IGA and committed to this project with the Southeast Community Center.

And then we moved on into 2024 where we did a project charter after the IGA and did a lot of work in 2024 and 2025 with multiple work sessions, multiple corners of finance.

And that's when we really refined what the scope, what would be in this facility and really a budget.

And as Caleb had mentioned before, in November, not only was some authorization to move forward some COPs,

but there was also a resolution to really approve the scope that we're going to talk about tonight and the exact funding that the city would support with this and the funding stack.

And so where are we in the design process? Let's click again.

So in 2024, we brought a broad of those conceptual designs.

Schematic design is about a 30% design.

And that was from January to August 2025.

And again, we were coming back again with, here's the new cost of that facility. If you remember when we talked to you all, the scope of the facility needed to shrink by about 10,000 square feet. We reduced the gymnasium size. We did uphold our partnership with... Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver Silver

Silver Silver Silver

Silver six weeks which is really exciting we do expect a groundbreaking here bring on to the next slide but we do expect a groundbreaking in early June we'll get the exact date out to you in the public and the project page as we refine that with our contractor but we know it's here pretty soon and then you'll you'll see that work start on the site all right the scope that we've had it's this is the entire facility, not just the city side, but just over 86,000 square feet, about $99.5 million. We usually just say we're building $100 million project, which is significant. The city portion still is the 76.5 million, and the 23 million from Poudre Libraries. Part of that 76.5 million, Poudre School District does have a piece of that. And so part of the IGA and stuff was a 3.18 contribution that was the value of the land. And so that land is now owned by the city, and that goes towards their fair share of the lap lanes. And we've been working with them throughout this time to ensure they understand what the lap lanes, their portion, is going to cost them. And they know that there could be a cash payment coming to the city for their portion. So we've been working lots of meetings to make sure we're all aligned on what the commitments are and things like that. But an exciting facility. We have an indoor 10-lane lap pool. Right now, do you still have the dive well? We heard really loud and clear that if we could get that in from a fun component, we're keeping that in. The outdoor leisure pool is per the ballot. Very similar to City Park pool in terms of amenities. It will look different because it's a couple decades newer. you know a couple middle school gymnasiums where we'll be having things indoor track it's down to that two lanes from three lanes that we originally had then the common spaces innovation community rooms and a full service library which is when you talk to community members that's one of the things we're really excited about is having kind of co-located to be able to go to the facility and do both things and of course again this is a lead gold facility which we should be really proud of as a community the efficiency that we're finding with this facility. And so tonight, you have a lot of agreements in front of you. We do have an intergovernmental agreement with Poudre Libraries that really just, we've been talking all along about better together and fair share in those things. And this agreement with Poudre Libraries and the IGA just really solidifies what we've been doing all along. It shows the partnership that we've had. The facility use agreement is how we're going to operate it. That's something we will be looking at updating annually as we get into the operations and need to tweak it. And then there's a lease agreement as well. And then the Poudre School District, you know, we've been talking a lot about Poudre School District and their contribution with the Laplanes. But their partnership goes so much further than the Laplanes. We have a shared drive that is their faculty lot on the east side of our facility, west side of Poudre School District, that will be available. It gave us part of our parking for the facility as a kind of an overflow. So it gave us credits there. So it was a really good use of space. It'll be available to the community outside of school hours. The shared drive is where they're approving an easement to put all the utilities. They're giving us an easement to the south of the facility so we can connect a pedestrian path into twin silo to really make this an interconnected campus with the school and this park and everything. and then we obviously already share in a lot of raw water at Twin Silo and Fossil Ridge High School, Zach Elementary and the Southeast has a water share and we'll be tapping into that same pump station. So there's just a lot more. They've been great partners in saying, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Let's do that, right? And so I just, it's been a hard project. I won't say this is not a hard project to do when you bring partners along. I think anytime you're doing 100 million but in terms of the way each of our partners and our we've showed up for our community to to bring this project to the community I'm really really proud of it's been a lot of fun and it has been really hard so but yeah after that there are a bunch of learning dreams in the back if you saw in the slide and for the community if there's we'll have those online as well happy to show those tonight but that wraps up my presentation so are there any questions

Great, thank you. We don't have anyone sign up for public comment on this items. Do council members have any questions or comments? Council member Fudge. Thank you and thank you for the presentation. I just want to say that this is a really great example of units of government working together. We often hear, I hear my day job, that government should do more to work together to save costs and expand services and this is a fabulous example of that. Thank you to the voters who approved doing this so many years ago and a couple of times. I think it's really going to make an impact in the southeast part of town, expanding library service, replacing council tree. I know in the eastern part of their district, this will really provide more service and space for them. And that's a great thing.

There's also a bit of a desert for gyms on the southeast part of Fort Collins as a former gym member down that way so I look forward to utilizing this too and then the demand

for swim lanes and and swimming access in the high schools is is great to be addressing I understand especially with the changes to the land use code that

were made for harmony corridor hopefully there'll be even more residential space in the I-25 the harmony tech park so there will be more more people there to use that and I'm also happy that it's on a it's accessible to transit with a bus stop right there. A year or so ago on the when I was on the library board we had a couple of people who said you know I take the bus to get to Council Tree and am I going to be able to take the bus to get to this new library? Unfortunately they will so that's great. And most importantly as a volunteer for the marching band at Fossil they were nervous that the trees near their

practice field were gonna get taken away and so that's one question I kept bringing up so I'm glad that they're still there because shade is necessary when they're doing band camp in the middle of july and august um and so thank you again for

bringing this all together i know it was a lot of work um i just do want to point out that if

there's an opening in the summer of 2028 i would imagine we'd expect to see the operating costs

included in the second year of the biennial budget that comes out this fall yes and just what uh

ballpark what those those costs might be yeah great question glad you asked um we did bring some of that to council finance and the council works just since we're estimating again um about a i don't have my glasses on so i'm gonna do that for you because you've been on the wrong page

um it's about a 2.3 to 2.6 million dollar expense and we're estimating in that 2 to 2.3 million

dollar revenue generation right in 28 it could be it'll be scaled at some point and so we are in that kind of we were estimating that 400 to 800 thousand dollar subsidy and that is for full operational costs not just the recreation fund that is operation services with the aquatic side of the building the hvac of the building all of that and we will keep refining that now that we have our square footage nailed down we'll start to get more modeling in our hvacs and we'll keep refining that but that is really our goal and if we can the less subsidy um and the pressure we put on the general fund I think that is a goal of this facility to continue to to do some really good work in that space and I'll bring up our CFO here.

Just one other minor thing I'll note for those of you who are on council finance all of the budget discussions that we've had where we talked about the baseline budgets for 27 28 where appropriate have included estimates for the opening and operation of the southeast community center so it's definitely part of our planning.

Thank you. I appreciate that and hopefully I can be member number one over there. So thank you

Great anyone else council member I'll be quick. I just wanted to thank Leanne and staff. I know that you received a lot of feedback from council you responded things were reworked Just excellent work on a really exciting project. So thanks

Anyone else? See none. I'll just echo everyone that you know this has been over ten years of planning and Julie and I were the only ones on council when this first came forward with the plans and then the discussion with PSD in the library So just a big thank you to staff and then also library district staff and PSD staff for bringing this all together I think it's gonna be a really great facility. So congratulations. Yeah All right, just a heads up to council that we do have five motions for this so hang in there and we'll move up Is there a motion for ordinance number 47?

Yes. I move to adopt on first reading ordinance number 47-2026, approving a lease agreement with the Poudre River Public Library District for use of a portion of the Southeast Community Center. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Great. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem and a second by Council Member Fudge. Any further discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Conway? Yes. Francis? Yes. Pina Terrell? Yes. Yes. Hovind? Yes. Paduyandi? Yes. Fudge?

Yes.

That passes 6-0. Is there a motion for Resolution 63?

I move to adopt Resolution 2026-63 authorizing the city manager to sign an intergovernmental agreement with Poudre River Public Library District for the design and construction of the Southeast Community Center.

Is there a second? Second. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem and a second by Councilmember Conway. any further discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll francis yes piñatero yes

hoven yes pati andy yes fudge yes conway yes that passes six zero is there a motion for resolution

number 64 i move to adopt resolution 2026 64 authorizing the city manager to sign a joint use agreement with poota river public library district regarding the southeast community center common

amenities second we have a motion by mayor pro tem and a second by councilmember hoven any further discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll pinotero yes hoven yes

paddy andy yes fudge yes conway yes francis yes that passes six zero is there a motion for

resolution 65 i move to adopt the resolution 2026 65 authorizing the city manager to sign a facility use agreement with poudre school district r1 regarding use of city pool facilities second

i'll second motion by mayor pro tem and a second by council member fudge any further discussion

seeing none whether clerk please call the roll hoven yes patty andy yes fudge yes conway yes

Frances? Yes. Pina Taro? Yes. That passes 6-0. Is there a motion for resolution 66?

I move to adopt resolution 2026-66 authorizing the city manager to sign an intergovernmental agreement with Poudre School District R1 regarding the Southeast Community Center

and school district property. Second. This is a motion by Mayor Protem and a second by Council Member Patiandi. Any further discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll.

Patti Andy yes fudge yes Conway yes Francis yes Pina Terrell yes Hovind

yes that passes 6-0 and that is the end of our discussion items and we will move on to other business do council member have any items of other business

to come before council I this isn't officially other business but I did not mention it earlier that based on feedback within district 5 and specifically users along the Spring Creek Trail I am just sending some information or would like some additional information about how we're enforcing no class 3 level e-bikes and motorized vehicles on the trail because there's been some big concern and those those are on the trail so I'm not articulating this well but I meant to say it early so I'm sorry thank you okay

do we have a motion to go into executive session yes I move that the City Council

go into executive session to consider matters pertaining to issues of competition and providing telecommunication facilities and services including matters subject to negotiation strategic plan price sales and marketing development phasing and related matters as permitted under article 12 section 7d of the city charter and section 2-31 a 5 of the city code is there a second second we have a motion

by mayor potom and a second by council member conway any members of the public like to speak on this seeing none council member any further discussion seeing none or the

clerk please call the roll fudge yes Conway yes Francis yes Pina Taro yes

Hovind yes Patti Andy yes that passes 6-0 there will be no further business after the completion of the executive session and the FCTV broadcast will now end good night Fort Collins

Thank you.