What If They Gave a Council Meeting, and No One Came?

I attended the July 27th meeting of the City Council of Castle Pines North. Other than elected officials of the City, and people paid to be there, out of a community of 10,000 people nobody came - not one citizen attended the meeting. Nobody.

There was a request for additional expenditure for street repairs. An additional $80,000 was approved for pavement striping, asphalt patching, street sweeping, work on crosspans and aprons, and concrete pavement panel repair. With the $20,000 worth of repairs that was approved at the last meeting, 2010 expenditures on street repairs move from $200,000 to $300,000. In addition to these expenditures, there is still a great deal of back log in other street repair work that needs to be done. We should hear a detailed report on the condition of the street surfaces in the next few weeks, as well as how much money will be needed to bring the streets up to par.

A consultant was hired by Council at a cost of $7,500 to create three models. The first model will show what it currently costs to run the City using CH2MHill. The second model will show what it would cost to run the City using employees. The third model will show what it would cost to run the City if there is a merger with the Metro District. It is hoped the model will show savings from using employees, as well as further savings from a merger. The hope is savings from the City's merger with the Metro District can be used by the City to pay to fix our streets, though capital costs will not be included in the study. Council does not know whether or not the Metro District will participate.

It was reported zero citizens have volunteered for the committees Council has set-up.

Council met as the URA commission, and set up a new advisory committee to the URA commission. Council also discussed appointing a grievance committee to hear appeals to decisions made by the planning commission, which is also the council members. Council asked if it was a conflict of interest to be the URA, and the planning commission, and the grievance committee. Council's counsel advised there is no conflict of interest.

A special outside communications company was paid $10,500 for one month's work. They will be paid an additional $21,000 for two more months work. A brochure is being printed up at additional cost. The brochure is supposed to explain how the URA is good for residents of our community.

A Council member said that incorporation was supposed to be about combination of HOAs, and that a lot of savings were supposed to flow from the combination. It was pointed out that instead, a bunch of taxes and fees had been passed on to residents, and not any of the imagined savings have ever taken place. The councilmember asked if taxes could be cut. The answer given was not if you want the streets fixed.