I attended the 7/13 City Council meeting. Zero citizens stayed through to the end of this meeting.
The meeting began at 5:30 with an on-site inspection of an erosion problem on one of the streets in the south part of the City. It's too early to tell exactly what the cause of the problem is, the extent of the erosion, or what the precise fix should be. Water is not flowing as it's supposed to, and some areas are being washed out from the erosion. Further research will be done on the problem over the next few days, and the Council may try to move pretty quickly to address this problem. Citizens living nearby believe the problem has been going on since around February. Storm related events may now be eroding what could be a couple hundred yards of area underneath the street.
The work session began at 6 at the HOA1 Clubhouse, with Council training on public records policy. The Citizens Emergency Response Team made a presentation. Performance measurements were suggested to monitor CH2MHill's contract. The air conditioning was not turned on early in the day, so the room was hot. We opened the doors to let outside air in.
The regular meeting began at 7 with the library district updating its summer reading contest. The City's auditor then presented her report on the 2009 books. She said things were better than a year ago, largely due to a one-time payment of almost two million dollars to the City from the Canyons developer. She said the audit looks backwards, and not forwards, and that the future would be more challenging without these one-time injections from developers. The new City manager chimed in, saying the City would have to live within its revenues. (Hooray!) The auditor said some practices in 2009 were not good, but in as much as a new accounting firm has just been hired, that's old news. (I don't know if anyone told her the new firm specializes in HOA management, and has never done accounting for a City before.)
Audited 2009 Revenues were:
Property Taxes - $661,417
Specific Ownership Taxes - $49,998
Sales Taxes - $716,088
Use Taxes - $694,192
Franchise Fees - $344,630
Intergovernmental Revenues - 6,237
Developer Fees - $1,976,400
Miscellaneous - $250
Audited 2009 Expenses were:
City Council - $24,309
City Manager - $134,871
General Operations - $451,000
Legal Services - $232,514
Finance - $98,441
City Clerk - $134,062
Incorporation Costs - $786
Public Safety - $695,833
Public Works - $551,049
Community Development - $380,404
The City began the year $737,496 in the hole, and with the developer payment of $1,976,400 on December 30th, ended the year at $2,008,804.
As to 2009 expenditures on roads:
Maintenance - $118,500
Traffic control - $9,873
Snow and Ice Removal - $163,033
General Administration - $92,735
Law Enforecement and Safety - $166,908
On the revenue side of roads in 2009:
$420,712 came from local taxes.
$130,337 came from the State of Colorado
The auditor states there was a material weakness in the City's financial reporting process in 2009. The auditor continues to believe the City's internal controls are inadequate to accurately and timely report financial information. The auditor suggests the City seek appropriate resources to prepare financial statements. The auditor says specific recommendations from the prior year were not put in place. Adequate supporting documentation was not found on several expenditures. It is suggested expenditures be reviewed and approved prior to payment, and that the approval should be in writing.
The meeting then moved on to extend the moratorium on marijuana related matters, and to adopt licensing regualtions for sexually oriented businesses. A representative of council was appointed to oversee the new manager's contract.
Money was approved to fix some curbs, gutters, and sidewalks, above the prior budget. Apparently the need for concrete is about six times what the available budget is for concrete repairs. The first draft of the recently conducted pavement study is being massaged, and a report will be presented at the next council meeting. There is no more money left in the budget to spend for the rest of the year. The budget for striping the streets has also seen a shortfall. Council does have $100,000 it could spend on streets. Polymers may be tried for patching some of the holes that can't be budgeted for repair.
A discussion was had about writing a Comprehensive Master Plan for the City, plus zoning regulations, and then design review guidelines. This will take a lot of money and at least two years. It can be done in house, or a consultant can be hired. (You may recall the County's 2030 Master Plan process.) This would be done to aim at the Canyons needs in five to eight years.
Doug will organize an authentic German Volksmarch for the Oktoberfest. This is a form of non-competitive fitness walking that developed in Europe. Participants typically walk 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) on an outdoor path. Participants enjoy recording distances and event participation in international record books. More of a social event than a 'HEALTHY OUTING', participants often bring along a Boda bag filled with wine or Apfelcorn. Maureen and Tara will also sponsor a fun run of some type. It is not known if these two events can be merged. Doug was asked if free beer would be provided to men who have the guts to wear lederhosen in the Volksmarch. He quipped that good Germans don't give away beer, they sell it.
A couple ward meetings had the URA lady come talk about the URA. The new city manager said the petition for a ballot question to repeal the URA has been has been approved to form. If enough signatures are collected, this question will be on the November ballot. (The City has a website that will likely have information FOR the URA. I believe the Blight's Not Right group has a website AGAINST the URA. There is a FaceBook page with a couple hundred supporters called "Are You In The Dark in Castle Pines North?" If you read all three you'll probably have a pretty good idea what the issue is about.)
Apparently a citizen asked City staff if it was ok to have a block party. They wanted to know about blocking off their street for the event. The City does not have a policy on block parties. A wide ranging discussion was then held on permitting block parties, how Castle Rock does it, how the County does it, and the Army's policy under the Clinton Administration on gays in the Military. (Don't Ask, Don't Tell.) It was finally determined the Clintons had it right, but instead it came out as a policy of "Block Partier Emptor", or some such.
Jim McGrady spoke to the topic of the notion of integration between the City and the Metro District. He's going to ask Clifton Gunderson how much it would cost to prepare three models. The first model would show the City operating under a CH2MHill contract. The second model would show the City operating under City employees. The third model would look at the City's 2010 budget and the Metro District's 2010 budget, and look at potential financial savings or improvement in delivery of services by merging the two entities functions. Jim will obtain a quote and have the cost available at the next City council meeting. He would like to have the work performed by September 1st, in time for 2011 budgeting. Jim was asked by Council if the Metro District board has bought into the notion of this study. Apparently that conversation has not yet been had, but needs to happen. Council expressed concern that the District's board may not embrace the study results if they do not participate in the study itself.
(It has long been asserted in some circles that there could be savings from merging the City and the Metro District. While that sounds good, no credible study has ever been presented to show how this desire might come true - or that any such savings are sufficient to fund the needs to the City. The Metro District has moved on to explore whether consolidation with other water providers in the area might in fact produce savings for citizens, or better service levels, or perphaps both. If the Council cannot demonstrate savings, and if needs for street repair and other items exceed the current budget, the Council is going to need to come to citizens and ask for a tax to fund the operation of the City. Development on the east side of I-25 might help with revenues, but it might take eight years to plan, develop, sell, and generate traffic on the east side of I-25 that produces such revenues. Until that cash flows, the City is going to need to pull in its horns, or ask for a tax, or both.)
Bond attorney Dee Wisor will come to the City Council on Monday, July 26th. He will talk about impacts of Amendment 60, and 61, and Proposition 101. (You can see his speech on YouTube.) Citizens are welcome to attend the speech. Citizens will then have to leave so that City Council can have an executive session with Dee to talk about a bond election in November to raise a new tax to support the operation of the City.
I then left, and the Council had an executive session to talk about Metro District matters. They were going to have a session about the URA, but there's no new conversation to be shared at this time. A report on the URA was circulated, and it was mentioned that a motion has been filed in Court to try to get one of the law suits against the City dismissed. I think it was 9:30 when I left.
If there are no substantial savings to be had from integration of the Metro District and the City (likely) and if voters reject a request for higher taxes to fund the operation of the City (way too soon to tell), then how will we pay for the upkeep of our assets, such as the condition of the streets? Does anybody have any good ideas on that score? And once again, shouldn't we have a thorough study of what our assets are worth, and how much money we need to save to pay for their replacement? Until we have that data, do we really have any idea what the financial needs of the City are? While there is only so much bandwidth, shouldn't we prioritize that study of reserves and capital budgets? Do we need to put away several hundred thousand dollars a month? A million a month? More? Less? Does anybody know? Where are we going to get the money needed to repair and replace the assets we already have, more less build other things we might want or need?
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