The Mayor's Mixtape

The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 11

• City of Pueblo • Episode 11

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Episode 11 of the Mayor's Mixtape includes updates about the recall petition for Mayor Heather Graham, questions answered from the listeners, next steps with ballot measure 2A and upcoming events for citizens to participate in May. Don't forget you can suggest a topic or email Mayor Graham with a question at mayor@pueblo.us. 

Haley Sue Robison:

All right, welcome to the 11th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. We are available on YouTube, apple, spotify, buzzsprout. We also have this podcast on Channel 17. And last week we went past the threshold of 500 downloads for the podcast. A lot of people have been sharing it and listening. Thank you to our listeners for sharing the good news with your friends. Also, don't forget, if you have questions or you want to suggest a topic, you can email us, mayor, at pueblous. Let's get started on episode 11 of the mayor's mixtape. Mayor Graham, I feel like it's appropriate to talk about the failed recall effort. Yesterday was the day for the petitioners to submit how many signatures they had, and we found out that they did not have enough signatures. I know you posted about it on Facebook, but is there anything else that you wanted to add?

Mayor Heather Graham:

No, I think so they. When they came to submit yesterday, I obviously went down to see what they had and they had about 3,000 that weren't verified or looked over by the city. That's just the numbers, initial count, initial count that were reported and notarized on their behalf. So probably a little bit less than half, if not less than, what they submitted. So yeah, I'm happy about it. I mean, obviously it's been a long, 60 days. I think it's unfortunate though what's happened with it, right? So you have the individuals who have been trying to recall me on factual information. I've seen everywhere that they've been at the grocery stores saying that they please sign here against the ground grocery tax. Like that's not what you were asking people to sign for. Sure, you were asking people to recall me.

Mayor Heather Graham:

It was a recall petition, not a petition regarding the tax you weren't very truthful in what you were, providing information out into the community, and that's hurtful for everybody. It's hurtful for local government, it's hurtful for community members themselves. It's just not good when we have misinformation out in the community. So, I'm happy it's done. I know they're going to try to do it again and that's fine and we'll deal with it when it comes. Yeah, move on to the next thing. Move on to the next thing.

Haley Sue Robison:

Move on to the next thing. Yeah, okay, well, I thought it was appropriate maybe at this time it's kind of coupled with the recall effort or your position as mayor to take a question from one of our listeners that was submitted. So what is one thing that you are proud of accomplishing in your time as mayor and what is one thing that you would like to work on accomplishing as the mayor?

Mayor Heather Graham:

I would say those are kind of the same thing. So one of my biggest accomplishments, I feel, has to do with the public police department. So since I've been the mayor, we've never hired as many officers as we've been able to hire. Last year we hired 30 new ones. This year we're running several academies. Academies are small but they're still getting lateral transfers and lots of new applications for people wanting to be public police officers.

Mayor Heather Graham:

But, as we know, crime is number one topic in our community, so we obviously need more boots on the ground. So, although it's an accomplishment to be able to hire more police officers as quickly as we hire them, we also have people who are retiring right or moving on to different careers. Um, you know especially what's been happening in Pueblo over the last two months and you have four police officers shot. Um, I'm sure it makes people think you know, do, is this the career path that I want to choose? Is this the career path I want to stay on? So it's something that we're going to continue to work on is building up our police force and making sure that you know we get over 200 bodies Right now, with all the people that are out on leave for the shootings with the injuries. We're facing really low numbers at the police department, so obviously call times are going to be longer than they were previously, but over the next couple weeks we do have a class graduating.

Haley Sue Robison:

Yeah, I think it might be next week actually.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Yeah, and the previous class that graduated. They're about to be ready to be on their own on the streets, so you're going to see an influx of officers out on the force over the summer.

Haley Sue Robison:

And I know that Chief actually talked about it recently. So when we train our officers, it still takes I think it's around 48 weeks for them to actually be alone on the streets.

Mayor Heather Graham:

That's total time.

Haley Sue Robison:

Yeah so you mentioned right, so you mentioned that one of our previously graduated classes is about to be on the streets by themselves, so that will help the force. But I think that's one thing that a lot of folks don't understand is, when they're going through the training and graduating from the academy, they they're still then paired with another seasoned officer, and so they're they're not able to be out on their own yet, right, yeah, so that also adds to the the pressure of our numbers and and our response times yeah, yeah, they're doing a fantastic job, though, and another thing that's been adding to our response time is we got a new cad system?

Mayor Heather Graham:

oh, yes, yeah, and with dispatch and so integrating it sure to dispatch and the officers being able to use the new technology and their cars for reporting has has added some time, but there's an adjustment, they're working the glitches out with that good. And then we do have the community meeting uh, tomorrow night I think it's at six o'clock at. It is zaragoza hall, um. So if anybody wants to come and hear the stats from chief knoller, uh, we'll be there at zaragoza hall at 6 pm tomorrow night.

Haley Sue Robison:

Great, quad, quad, three, threei think it's community, which it's different than the districts. It's in district four, but it's quad three because of the way that they patrol. So I know sometimes that's confusing to the public. I know for me. I've asked a lot of questions to the chief of. Okay, we're meeting in district four, but you said quad three and it's because of the way they separate the city. Yep, cool, okay, so we'll look forward to that tomorrow. Another thing obviously yesterday was Election Day, a big day for the city, with ballot measure 2A, and in the first round of the results we had a little over 17,000 votes and then by the end of the night, the tallied number was 20,562 votes, and that's still technically unofficial results, um, but it was. It was pretty emphatically defeated, with just over 4,500 votes for yes and just over 16,000 votes for no. Yeah, um, so where does this leave the city and what are the next steps?

Mayor Heather Graham:

So the city council will be able to decide on the off-ramp in August now.

Haley Sue Robison:

So this was for the franchise agreement.

Mayor Heather Graham:

This was one way they wanted to see if the community was going to be susceptible to other alternatives and, if they were deemed feasible, if city council was going to look over that for the next five years. So we've heard several city council members say that they won't take the off ramp if the people don't want them to.

Mayor Heather Graham:

So the election suggests that people don't want them to and that they're okay with paying 47% higher rates which I'm sure they'll have to go back to the PUC and ask for additional funding with all the money that they've spent on this election, for additional rate increases. So the city council will probably enter into a franchise agreement, stay in the franchise agreement for the next five years, and so over the next five years, the city will have to plan for what happens in 2030 when the contract comes to an end.

Haley Sue Robison:

Okay, so, regardless, the contract is up in 2030. I know that you've been meeting, like you met with Canyon City, you're meeting with other municipalities. Are you going to continue that?

Mayor Heather Graham:

effort. Yeah, I think that we'll meet with all of them, anybody that Black hills services and try to start putting a plan together, a pathway for the next five years.

Haley Sue Robison:

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham:

So that we're ready when the off-ramp comes to an end and the franchise agreement is over.

Haley Sue Robison:

Okay, so, I think for a lot of folks they thought that this was just kind of a one-and-done decision and then moving forward. It was just like we just stay with Black Hills forever, but no matter what, the contract ends in 2030, so it's looking at the potential of other opportunities. Do we continue a contract with Black Hills or something else?

Mayor Heather Graham:

absolutely so. Joining a co-op, creating a co-op, starting a new franchise, renegotiating a franchise agreement with Black Hills Energy there there's several different alternatives, okay.

Haley Sue Robison:

So these efforts were not all wasted, just for the election, I won't say they're wasted either.

Mayor Heather Graham:

And then, brian, will you hand me that letter from Black Hills? Actually, I think that this is interesting. So this was a letter that was. I think it came yesterday to me. This is from black hills uh, vice president, car utilities, campbell hawkins. And so there had been some issues in in downtown that we had several business owners dealing with, and actually jim concilia sent black hills a letter with some issues, um, and so this happened in february.

Mayor Heather Graham:

It says, you know, this letter was dated february 2020, 22nd of 2025, and here are some actions that black hills has taken. So, um, you know, really putting black hills feet to the fire, I think is it has helped, and so that's actually all outlined in our contract agreement.

Haley Sue Robison:

This is stuff that Black Hills should be doing regardless.

Mayor Heather Graham:

It shouldn't take five years or an election. But you know, black Hills states that the downtown streetlights all have been successfully replaced with all the lights in the downtown area, ensuring that all the streets are well lit and safe for residents. Ensuring that all the streets are well lit and safe for residents. The Union Street Bridge the issues with the electric feeder line on Union Street Bridge have been resolved. Our team repaired the damaged line and restored the lighting on the bridge. The Main Street Bridge the lights have been monitored and they're going to continue to monitor them regularly because we've seen those. Yeah, they were out continuously.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Um additional patrol crew campbell says they have added a dedicated crew to patrol and maintain downtown street lights, improving our response time to maintenance needs. Um and pole maintenance our operational teams have assessed and repaired the street light poles in the downtown area, so we've seen at least some things get handled in the downtown area.

Mayor Heather Graham:

I know that there's many other places around the community that still have lights out, that are not in good working order, that need bulbs replaced, and so hopefully Black Hills, since they're going to be under contract with the city for the next five years and they just received a large rate increase that they're going to take care of all those issues that we see in our community and be a good partner.

Haley Sue Robison:

That would be great, that would be great. Okay, also, last week you went to Castle Rock. You had another meeting regarding economic development. I know you and Chief of Staff McCain went up there and this was after your trip to Grand Junction. So it kind of seems like economic development is really at the forefront of a priority for you. Can you talk a little bit about the meeting last week and what came of it?

Mayor Heather Graham:

Yeah, sure. So this is our second meeting with them, with Castle Rock, so we went out to tour some of the new businesses, some of the facilities that they're bringing in their downtown district, their ura, which is similar to what we have for pura district and really seeing how they've been able to revitalize their community, their downtown area, the businesses that they've been able to bring their, their hospital, their community college.

Mayor Heather Graham:

You've seen tremendous growth, yeah, in castle rock, and so we kind of got to hear the story behind the growth where it comes from what they do, how they incentivize businesses. It's much, much different from what the city of pueblo does. They're not real big and monetary giving money to bring people here. They really don't do that at all. Their whole process is expediting the process to bring a business. Sometimes they do a shared sales tax. They're really heavily involved in retail up there, which is something that our economic development team does not do here in Pueblo. They are only primary job focused. I've heard them say that they don't think that retail should be incentivized, but according to Castle Rock, they really believe that retail should be incentivized.

Mayor Heather Graham:

It really helps grow the tax base. It provides jobs, whether they're primary or not. Some of the jobs in the facilities are primary, but it's a huge attraction to their community and it was surprising they're. They're very picky and choosy on what businesses they even let come into their community. Because they have such a high flux of people wanting to bring businesses to their community, they can be uh picky and say, yeah, I don't think so.

Mayor Heather Graham:

We, we don't want you this is a great partnership, and so we got to meet with their mayor, their city manager, their economic development team, which is a small group of three people, and kind of walk around their area and see what they've been able to do. So it's really eye-opening. It's something that the city should really look at doing. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We can just look at what other communities are doing and how they're successful, and that's something that I'm really going to push for Pedco and for the city council to look at and to address.

Haley Sue Robison:

That's great, I think. Also you just look at the model of Castle Rock, because Douglas County was the fastest growing county in the state for a number of years and they actually might still be. But it's great to see how they got there or what levers they were using to incentivize folks. So thanks for the update. Yeah, it's exciting Great. Speaking of updates, we have a couple upcoming events.

Haley Sue Robison:

Friday you're hosting a cleanup with your Mayor's Youth Council, which is students from across District 60. I know you had talked to them about maybe putting together a project and this is something that they came up with. So we'll be out at City Park on Friday from 9 to noon and everyone's welcome to volunteer. We'll have trash bags, gloves, grabbers, anything you could need for trash pickup, and we're meeting at City Park Pool parking lot. I think some of the students are really interested in cleaning up around the trail fence line, kind of some high traffic areas that they go to often, so that's a great opportunity. Also, this weekend we have our last legislative breakfast with the greater chamber. That's Saturday morning at 8 am over at the convention center. That's Saturday morning at 8 am over at the Convention Center. Anything in particular that you're looking forward to or expecting from the breakfast.

Mayor Heather Graham:

This will be our third one, so our first breakfast. It was a good turnout from our representatives. The last one, only two of the representatives showed up and they represent a small minority of Pueblo. So I hope that our other legislators show up to this breakfast so that they can continue to hear the concerns of the community. We're still waiting on House Bill 1147 to see if the governor is going to sign it and what it's going to do to our municipal court.

Haley Sue Robison:

Yeah, and I think Chief of Staff McCain was saying that today's the last day for 1159 pm. It ends today. Okay, Finally Feels like we've just been talking about it forever, but it's been a long kind of grueling session. Okay, so it comes to an end today. Anything else that we want to look forward to? I know you mentioned tomorrow we have the community meeting with police and then we also have a police graduation next week. It feels like a. I know it's only the beginning of May, but there's a lot on the Horizon, yeah, yeah.

Haley Sue Robison:

There's a lot on the calendar. I was looking at things yesterday. I do know our Team Up to Clean Up event is coming at the end of the month. That's our free dump day for everybody May 31st.

Mayor Heather Graham:

May 31st We'll have a location at the fair and then one out at CSU Pueblo, and then we'll also do our green waste at Recycle Works for trees or yard waste that people want to bring in. They don't have to wait in line at the at the two dump sites so that's great, that's really good it's always a a really filling event yeah, we see all kinds of stuff yeah, lots of people like coming and have lots of things to get rid of, so it'll start at 8 am. Yeah, eight, 8 to 3.

Haley Sue Robison:

Yeah, and the other thing that's great is we've been doing this, for this is our fourth year and we've had folks who want to sign up for volunteering, so that's been good. I actually put together a form on our website so folks can sign up to start volunteering with the city. You know, when you post things on your Facebook about cleanups and stuff, we get a lot of folks who are like, hey, how can I take part in this, or what, what can I do? So we put together a volunteer signup form. So that's exciting, too to see people want to get involved. Yeah, um, yeah, so that's at the end of the month, but there's a there's a lot of things coming up.

Haley Sue Robison:

Okay, anything else you want to add, mayor? I think that's it for today. Okay, that sounds great. Don't forget. You can email us, mayor@ pueblo. us if you have questions or topic suggestions. You can follow us on YouTube, apple, spotify, buzzsprout. If you're not a podcast person, you can watch us on Channel 17 with a local Comcast and tell your friends, keep up the downloads and share it.