The Mayor's Mixtape
Mayor Heather Graham's weekly brief of current events related to the City of Pueblo.
The Mayor's Mixtape
The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 7
This week Mayor Graham discusses legislation, the five guiding strategies of affordable housing along with the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds survey currently being distributed, questions from listeners and an update from Pueblo City Council Work Session. Don't forget submit a question or topic for the podcast by emailing mayor@pueblo.us.
Welcome to episode 7 of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs.
Mayor Graham:City of Pueblo, mayor Heather Graham, I almost forgot who I was for a minute. It's your podcast.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay.
Brian McCain:Chief of Staff, Brian McCain.
Haley Sue Robinson:The voice behind the mic. So, as a reminder, we're available on apple, spotify, youtube, government channel 17, buzzsprout also good news to share. Last week we made 250 downloads for the podcast. It's a milestone clap for ourselves. So thank you to our listeners for sharing, downloading, liking. So thank you to our listeners for sharing, downloading, liking, listening. We appreciate it. Also, don't forget, if you have questions or you want to submit a topic, you can email us at mayor, at pueblous, and we would love to answer your questions. Okay, mayor, let's get into a legislative update. Last week you had an interesting meeting. You met with Senator Nick Hendrickson, along with Chief N oeller from Pueblo Police Department and a couple of lobbyists from the Colorado Association of the Chiefs of Police and the Deputy Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General.
Mayor Graham:So would you like to give us an update about that meeting that you had last week? Well, I think, in my perspective, the Chief and I were summonsed to the Capitol to have conversations about the statement that the Chief made as it pertains to legislation and the blood of his officers being on the Capitol floor stairs. So you know, we are presented with the Bond Reform Act from several years ago and essentially told that Senator Henriksen had nothing to do with this because he wasn't a senator at the time, which is fair. But I think the correlation in all of it is as a body, as a legislative body. In Denver, they pass laws and rules that hurt Pueblo, and a lot of these laws and rules are decriminalization bills that let repeat offenders continue to make the same bad choices, pay no consequence and then their criminal behavior escalates.
Mayor Graham:So we heard the chief talk about the individual who shot our cops multiple times, how he had been in contact with law enforcement over 50 times. Just know, just at the local level. Yeah, it erupted. It was 14 pages long. 14 pages long, yeah, and so you know really, whose fault is it, what does that look like? And so you know.
Mayor Graham:The senator talked a lot about the judges and what the judges' abilities are, but the reality is, the judges just follow the legislation that the legislators set, and so it was a pretty heated discussion. There was some exchanges of words, but at the end of the day, I think that what the city would like to see is the legislators. When we talk about the court system, instead of impeding in our municipal courts, Senate Bill 62 and House Bill 1147 are doing by stripping away the municipal court's ability to put consequences and stricter punishments on individuals within our own community, that maybe they should focus their emotional charge on the state courts, and that the state courts maybe need to be looked at and not the municipal courts, and so that was something that we relied to our senator about things that we think should be happening when they're creating legislation that hurt our community.
Haley Sue Robinson:Sounds like it might have been a productive meeting.
Mayor Graham:I guess we'll see, but the reality is we're already now two bills deep, two bills that I know one went to the governor's desk today, right, Brian?
Brian McCain:Correct. One of them the failure to appear passed, so that's just awaiting the governor's signature. And then 1147, I believe it has to go back to the house. After it came out at either the Senate or house, has to go back to one or the other to re-engross it, I guess is what they call it, and then from there it will pass and then that will go to the governor's desk and both of those you sent a letter up to the governor today asking him to veto them, along with the Pueblo Greater Chamber of Commerce. There's some more letters coming. We saw one from the chief of police on 1147 from Durango, and from what I'm seeing online, there's quite a few other police departments, municipalities, even counties asking for a veto on, if not one, both of these bills.
Mayor Graham:Yeah, they're just raking us over the coals up. There is really what's happening. So stripping away all of our home rule authority. Why even be a home rule city if you have legislators who are going to take away all of your rights For people who don't want their rights taken away? I mean, it's interesting, isn't it?
Brian McCain:Also in your letter you highlight that a lot of this was based on a Denver Post article, which is not facts. It was more of an opinion piece. In my opinion it was more of an opinion piece. But in the committee hearings that we all went up to I know Carla's been up there a lot of times testifying on this. You've been up there, the chief that quote-unquote evidence that they give in support of these bills are anecdotal stories or anecdotal evidence. That's not even the real facts behind some of these cases that they cite, like the, you know, going to jail for a year for stealing lipstick or chapstick, or whatever it is, or a loaf of bread, um, and we highlight that in the letter.
Brian McCain:So the governor has it. Our lobbyists are hand delivering it to everyone up there, and I blasted it out to all of our local elected officials as well.
Mayor Graham:I mean the Home Rule Authority exists so that the community's rights are protected and what they think is best for the community rights, and when you have representatives who want to take that ability away without even having conversations about what that would do to our local community, it's very frustrating, and I think that's why we're so vocal. Is so people are aware of what's happening? Happening when we say we can't put people in jail, you're not going to be arrested for merchant theft anymore, you're not going to spend three mandatory days in jail um rules that the city has put into place, those will go away. Um, and it's unfortunate because we're going to see crime on the rise in our community even going back to illegal dumping I know that's one that we've talked about.
Brian McCain:Oh a lot there's no state statute of that, and if I mean, some of the biggest complaints that I've heard, even prior to coming into this job, is just people driving around a road and dumping their beds, their couches, anything. Just piles of trash everywhere, whether it's on the Fountain Creek, on a side road, even out in the county, outside of city limits. We have an illegal dumping problem here in Pueblo.
Mayor Graham:And so we put laws into place. Because of that, there isn't a state statute, you're not going to be able to be written into state court for illegal dumping.
Haley Sue Robinson:It's something unique to Pueblo.
Mayor Graham:It's something unique to Pueblo.
Haley Sue Robinson:Our home rule municipality authority.
Mayor Graham:Yeah, because it's a problem that we see in our community that maybe communities like Denver don't see Sure or Northern Colorado, or just not as frequently. Right, right. So we should have that ability. That is our right as a Home Rule Authority to make our own decisions that impact our own community. Sure.
Brian McCain:I have to throw in too. It's our Colorado constitutional right to do this Right.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so going a little bit further into legislation, this weekend we have the Greater Public Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast. It's the second breakfast of the season. Expectations for Saturday, or anything that the city is specifically looking at regarding legislation or that you're going to bring up?
Mayor Graham:We're watching these bills closely. So you know, the last breakfast we had, we introduced the idea of these two bills, so we'll have an update for everybody that attends the breakfast on, kind, of where we are. There's also a food truck bill that's creeping up that you know could have some impact on the city and, uh, food trucks, and so that's something that we regulate, um with business licensing. So, uh, that's one we're paying close attention to as well.
Brian McCain:Okay, and that one is opposed by CML and it kind of just snuck in because we thought it was going to go away and then magically appeared over the weekend.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so we'll look to hear more about that one. Yeah, great, okay. Mayor, we saw a post last week on City's Facebook I know you shared it as well, and it was on Instagram about the new five guiding strategies to tackle affordable housing and to ensure a better future for our community. These five strategies are boarded, blighted and burnt rehabilitation infrastructure blighted, commercial and homeless housing options. Can you talk a little bit about? We'd also mentioned a pilot program that we're going to be launching. Can you talk a little bit about this or where this came from?
Mayor Graham:Yeah, so this was really initiated through a process that we've heard Urban Renewal talk about in their districts, about houses that need attention, that have been burned. So Pura has come to the city council a couple different times the time that they came before previously I had our housing administrator and her team take a drive through the two urban renewal districts, eastside and Bessemer, and put a comprehensive list together on all of the properties that are specific to those two districts that we could look at revitalizing. So since we've put that list together now we've taken it a step further to see how the city can act with those houses and those properties and what we can do. So we have some HUD spending, some dollars that we can allocate to this project to go out into the community assess each of these houses.
Mayor Graham:So between those two districts I believe there's a little over 200 different properties that the city that we've inventoried, that we've inventoried are potentially in next steps. So what we'll do is we'll look at five to ten houses at a time. Okay, you know, make contact with the people that own the house. Um, try to acquire the house, try to get the property cleaned, the house knocked down. If it needs to be knocked down, okay, and then land bank the land, um until a developer comes in, or um, give it to a non-profit or to pura in order to put housing on it.
Haley Sue Robinson:so is that? Is that like a little bit similar to the partnership we had previously with pura with like the duplexes? Yeah, just taking it a step further with specific homes, though specific, that was like an empty and a city driven initiative.
Mayor Graham:So we hear a lot from our citizens. You know what can we do about these burned-down houses? Whose authority is it? Who's going to take the charge on this? And so this was really an effort put together by our new housing administrator, Melissa Cook. That a plan, you know, something strategic and tangible that we can use in order to address the houses in the two most blighted areas of the community. So we'll be taking this pilot project to city council soon. Again, the funding is going to be provided through HUD in order to hire. You know, if we have to have an attorney who needs to contact the individuals, it will be specific to each property on what the city needs to do, but we hope to get this started real soon.
Haley Sue Robinson:Cool, that's exciting. Okay, so that kind of dovetails into some questions that we received. We got a question from one of our listeners related to affordable housing, and we were just talking about HUD dollars. Um, how, how much money? So we have a survey out online um it's on our facebook and our instagram. We're asking the public to give their input on how we should spend this HUD money. Um, how much money do we have and what are the requirements of of the funding sources?
Mayor Graham:so the city receives about 2.5 million dollars a year, okay, um, from HUD, I think one about 1.4 million of it gives to different projects that people can apply to through the city, including the CDBG funds. If there's homeless outreach or homelessness preventative services like Posadas, one of our partners, that receives the city's HUD funding, okay, we also use HUD funding to do sidewalks ADA sidewalks within the city, and then the other million goes to housing-specific needs. So nonprofits or other partners of the city can also apply for those grant dollars. Okay, and that would be the portion of some of the funds that we would use for the project we previously spoke about Got it.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, great. And if you haven't already, take the time to complete the survey on City's Facebook or Instagram, okay, switching gears a bit, but we'll stick with some questions that were submitted. Mayor, what are your plans or what are your feelings about the rail service through Pueblo?
Mayor Graham:I think it's a great opportunity for the community. I know it's kind of far out, but I think that whatever way the city can be supportive, the Urban Renewal District is going to be performing a study in downtown Pueblo with the same firm who has provided the study or architectural design and plans for the depot. And so I hope that they're you know going to collaborate and bring it all together, but I think that having a destination here in Pueblo for Front Range Rail is really exciting and I'm in total support of it.
Haley Sue Robinson:Great, Awesome and then kind of a follow-up from what we've spoken about. This is another question what are your plans for CDOT action on Pueblo Boulevard with Southside Growth?
Mayor Graham:So we're still continuing to work with CDOT and work with the developers on how we are going to get that project completed so that these businesses can get their occupancy certificates and get open. As you can see, Starbucks is it's the outside of the infrastructure is pretty much done.
Mayor Graham:You can tell it's going to be a Starbucks.
Mayor Graham:now you can for sure by just looking at we know that the tire shop has submitted their plans to regional building. They're ready to get rolling as well. So we've had conversations with PEDCO. We've had conversations with urban renewal about finding some kind of financing tool, um, in order to get that infrastructure in the ground so that that can be a already developed corridor. And in south pueblo, where other businesses, there's still tons of empty lots. There's right 40 acres that are still available.
Mayor Graham:There's a lot of opportunity on the south side there.
Mayor Graham:So that's where. That's where the businesses are coming um. As a city, we should be supportive. Um CDOT should be supportive. Uh, so we're still working on that, but hopefully we'll have a resolution soon okay, great, um, so we'll dive right into work session follow-up from last night.
Haley Sue Robinson:Um, I know we'll have more information, obviously, regarding the feasibility study with Black Hills. That'll be online in the next week to 10 days. Um, I think that might be a little bit too long for us to get into today, so we'll we'll keep it light, um, there, but we'll have that available on the city website. We'll share it via social media so folks can get their questions answered and dive into what we received back from GDS. Last night. There were a couple interesting updates, I thought, with boards and commissions from our city councilors, and so I thought I'd ask a couple questions about that. Councilor Boston mentioned we have a second Whataburger location. Yep, we're going to see that on first reading this coming Monday. Yeah, on the north side.
Brian McCain:Yeah.
Haley Sue Robinson:So can you talk anything about what that development process has looked like? I know we saw a little bit of coverage in the in the chieftain about it, um, but it's all been through planning and zoning. And then where's this location going to be?
Mayor Graham:it's off Dylan, right, it's, it's Dylan up around Eagle ridge up around the corner, kind of by sam's okay, so it's over by, like the,H oliday inn and sam's in that area right there.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so that'll be perfect when we have our new roundabout up there too. Great, okay, so we'll see that on the agenda Monday Also. Councilor Aliff mentioned a potential new hotel down at the Riverwalk.
Mayor Graham:Yeah, so we have some developers who have come in looking to purchase the piece of property that the HARP offices currently sit on. Okay, the property is currently owned by Urban Renewal, so we're looking to put a proposal together for somebody to enter the RFP. So it would be a great addition to the Riverwalk. We know that we're always striving for more hotel rooms, especially in the downtown area with the convention center and the conferences that come here.
Mayor Graham:The hotels sell out pretty fast if you want to. Oh yeah, we always need more, yeah, if you want to stay downtown. So super excited about that. Sounds like a really really cool project.
Haley Sue Robinson:Cool, okay, so we'll hear more about that upcoming yeah, more to come.
Mayor Graham:Okay, this is government Haley, so you know, everything's like Slow to grow. Yeah, slow to grow, unfortunately.
Brian McCain:All right, we'll get there.
Mayor Graham:If it was my way, you know, I'd just wave my magic mare wand. And when is that? I don't know.
Haley Sue Robinson:Oh, you don't have it yet.
Mayor Graham:No, maybe the previous mayor didn't leave it for me.
Haley Sue Robinson:Oh okay, so yeah, we got to look through some files for that one. Okay, um, also talking about the riverwalk, uh, counselor Aliff mentioned counselor Boston had an idea about some festivals, yeah, down at the riverwalk. I thought maybe you might have some insight there so this has kind of been a collaborative effort.
Mayor Graham:The city of Pueblo has the entertainment districts, but they're really cumbersome in order for businesses to apply to be in this district to have an event, and so we had city staff do some digging on other kind of permits that could be pulled.
Mayor Graham:Eventually we landed on a festival permit and so the businesses along the riverwalk could pull festival permits and so we've been focusing on pulling those permits over the months in the summer and having live music, which is already provided um the HARP and you know open areas on the riverwalk where people would be able to go to any of the restaurants and bring a blanket and and have a beer and watch the live music, like on the grass. So this would all be within the festival permits that are pulled by the individual business. They could also invite other entities to come down and serve under their permit for the night or the weekend or however long they wanted to do that for. So it's really exciting. It would be a great use of the Riverwalk space and HARP is already providing the music so you can bring your family. We hope to have food trucks down there.
Mayor Graham:So it just enhances the whole experience of what's already occurring down at the Riverwalk, absolutely, and just having more frequent and trying not to put additional costs on the businesses that are already down there With the fencing. The security will be provided by the city. We work with the businesses on the revocable permits for food checks or however they wanted to do it. It would really be up to the business, but the city wants to just be business friendly and we want to make sure that people have something to do on the weekend and it's family-oriented, and so we look forward to hopefully hosting a couple of those this summer. Cool.
Haley Sue Robinson:So not quite the scale of, say, chili Fest or even Boats, bands and Barbecue. Much smaller yeah, smaller, but still really accessible and kind of just utilizing the river walk in a different but, yeah, really great way to get more folks down there, yeah, and it's free, so you could go and listen to the music.
Mayor Graham:I mean, um, obviously you can't bring your own alcohol, but um, you can't do that anywhere.
Haley Sue Robinson:yeah, so as far as I would recommend, as far as I know folks don't do that anyway, unless it's, as I know Folks don't do that anywhere, unless it's your house.
Mayor Graham:Unless it's your house, yeah, no problem. So live music will be there regardless, so we just encourage the community to come out and enjoy.
Haley Sue Robinson:Cool, okay, I can't wait to hear more about that, all right, well, anything else you think we need to touch on today? I know we always have lots of things we can discuss. I don't think so, do we?
Mayor Graham:have anything else. There's no town hall this week Not this week. Next week, though and we're going to continue the town halls to make sure that people are educated and they know what the survey comes back, what it said, what the next steps are. So we're going to continue that process, Okay.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, that sounds great. Okay, so I think we'll wrap for the day. There's something this weekend. Okay, tell me. Tell me, what's this?
Mayor Graham:weekend the Music fest.
Haley Sue Robinson:Oh yeah, steel City Music Festival. Yeah, we're going to have over 30 bands Friday and Saturday night. Actually, I just saw something I think it was yesterday on Facebook they're turning neon alley into a, a venue for music. They're going to have a stage back there and Phil's, Gold dust Fuel and Iron maybe.
Brian McCain:No, it's uh neon alley presley's gold dust. And then the I forget what it's called. It's that little food oh bella yeah what is it?
Mayor Graham:is that labella, labella, labella, union with the food trucks labella union yeah, with the food trucks okay cool, and it's gonna be like 85 degrees and oh, it's gonna be perfect.
Haley Sue Robinson:It's like the perfect spring weekend in pueblo and there's no excuse not to go also, so I went last year. It's pretty affordable. Um, it also doesn't really matter what kind of music you listen to, because there's all different kinds of music. Um, you know, you can listen to country. You can listen to country, you can listen to hip hop. A little bit of everything, but a lot of local artists, local music, right in the heart of downtown. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Mayor Graham:Yeah, so come downtown and enjoy the bands and the food and the music and the nice weather.
Haley Sue Robinson:Absolutely Okay. I'm glad we, I'm glad you got that one in. Don't forget to like, subscribe, listen, download, Apple, Spotify, Buzzsprout, YouTube you can watch on Channel 17. And don't forget, you can also email us your topics or your questions. Mayor@ pueblous and we'll see you next week.