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 17
Mayor Graham celebrates 750 downloads of The Mayor's Mixtape podcast. Thank you to everyone for listening, liking and subscribing. Don't forget to send your questions and topic suggestions to mayor@pueblo.us.
Episode 17 Mayor Graham discusses the Pueblo City Council Work Session from June 16. Pueblo County Commissioners presented on the future of Pueblo Regional Building and are hosting a townhall on Tuesday, June 17 at the Sangre de Cristo Art Center from 5:30-7pm. Additionally, Mayor Graham talks about the criteria ordinance related to Pueblo Economic Development Corporation (PEDCO) half cent sales tax and the potential ballot measure in November.
Okay, welcome to episode 17 of the Mayor's Mixtape. I want to say thank you to everybody. We hit 750 downloads last week, so thank you for sharing, listening. We're like a real podcast now. We are like a real podcast now. It's exciting. My name is Haley Robinson. I'm the director of public affairs for the city of pueblo mayor Heather Graham, and joined by lucy today.
Haley Sue Robinson:First, dog lucy I. I thought maybe it was going to be one of our uh episodes without a guest, but then lucy decided that she wanted to be on. She has lots, lots to share today. So, yeah, that's good. Don't forget, if you have questions, you can email us a topic or question, mayor@ pueblo. us, and you can find our podcast on Apple, spotify, buzzsprout, youtube, channel 17,. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can listen to us. So, mayor, kind of a long city council work session last night. So we'll get into a couple of things, but one of the first things that happened last night was the public. County commissioners came and gave a presentation, talked about regional building and potential status of what it looks like moving forward. Tonight they have a town hall and they want to discuss the timelines associated with regional building. Can you kind of share with us what this looks like from a city perspective?
Mayor Heather Graham:Sure, so the city, the county and Pueblo Regional Building have a three-party IGA.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, IGA is an intergovernmental agreement, correct.
Mayor Heather Graham:And so what the IGA really governs is how a regional follows our codes, talks about timelines, so our IGA renews every year. And right now the county is thinking about exiting the IGA and developing their own building department inside of the county. Okay, bringing it in-house. Bringing it in-house, so what that would mean is there would be no IGA, so the city could potentially do the same thing and have its own building department within the city.
Mayor Heather Graham:I don't think that the city has the capacity to do that, and we don't want to see development come to a halt because we're not prepared to take on something of that size, and so my proposal last night would be that the city council and the administration renegotiate the agreement between regional building and ourselves so we would have a continuous IGA and within city limits, nothing would skip a beat, so it would be maintained. Regional building would still collect the fees. At this time, the city and the county give no monetary contributions to regional building. They are solely funded by fees and permits that people pull within the community. So it's been a pretty hot topic over the last week.
Mayor Heather Graham:I think that the county commissioners we heard Commissioner McPheeters, you know said this is something that they had been thinking about for a while and having discussions amongst themselves. Not all three of them seem to be on board with this issue. I know Commissioner Lucero said that there was still more conversation to be had and he still wanted to see a plan and gather all the information before he made any kind of decision, but it sounds like at least two of the commissioners are ready to yeah, to put the city on notice that they'll be exiting the IGA. So they have to do it before July 1st because they have to give the city six months notice. So they would notice the city July 1st and the agreement would come to an end December 31st.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so then the county would move forward with their own building department starting January 1 of 26? Okay, and talk to us a little bit. I know that you expressed your own relationship, or the city's relationship, I guess, with regional building and kind of some of the changes that you've made since you became the mayor.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, so regional building is governed by a board of seven individuals.
Mayor Heather Graham:I appoint some, county commissioners appoint some. We have one city councilor and one county commissioner that also sit on the board. So that's really regional's oversight. Concerns that I have is there won't be any third-party oversight. If the city is to would be to absorb their own regional building department, or the county would. So those were some of the concerns that I have. I've yet to see a plan from the county. They have not put the city on notice. City has been requesting a plan for probably the last four weeks. At the end, zach said last night that they were going to have a plan out today, their plan was going to be posted today and that they would discuss it more at their town hall this evening. So I'm excited to see it. And if, um, you know, the County wants to be autonomous and have their own regional regional building department, I mean that sounds like something that they have every right to do. But I do have concerns when it comes to development, um, that the permitting process will slow down and not speed up.
Haley Sue Robinson:Well and it seems like you know this is an interesting time for it because that's been a topic of conversation pretty continuously this year, as far as you know projects on the boulevard or even like large-scale development with housing the city has maybe a different relationship with regional building too, and you asked about what we've done since coming into office.
Mayor Heather Graham:we meet monthly, okay, with uh, Mark Guerrero and his inspectors, if needed for a regulatory compliance meeting. So it's about six or seven different agencies that come to the office. We talk through building permits. We talk through right now the topic has really been on lodging and hotels and licensing, and so I think I might have a little bit of a different relationship with the building department because we've been working very closely together on different issues that the county has not been involved in. So I'm not sure what their relationship is like. But we recently had an issue with Evraz and it was just one phone call to Mark and he was here to participate in the meetings and help the process move along.
Mayor Heather Graham:So of course, as a business owner or just a private citizen, I've had issues with regional I'm sure many people within our community have, but at the end of the day, they're here to keep the community safe, and that's something that I think everybody could be respectful of.
Haley Sue Robinson:Well, and I think one thing that maybe some folks don't understand and you've brought that group together is it's not just regional building. There's fire, there's sales tax, there's the health department. Obviously, those are in relation to specifically like lodging Inspections, yep, but those types of inspections, you know, if you're, in your case, opening a business, like a restaurant, you have to have all of those inspections done. So if we're, if the city were to absorb this, we would stand up a brand new department, um, a building department, uh it, it doesn't necessarily seem like maybe the most.
Mayor Heather Graham:Six months is not enough time, sure, to start that process and have a flawless process. I just I think that it would need more time and more discussion.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, that'll be interesting to see what the town hall brings this evening we do know that.
Mayor Heather Graham:You know they had some numbers last night, some percentages, where they said I think 60% of the permits are actually pulled within the city limits. So if the city was to do that we'd have a little bit harder time. I think, because the majority of the permits, the larger permits, the commercial reviews, most of that is done within the City of Pueblo.
Haley Sue Robinson:So then that would all be brought in-house.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, Seems like Lucy's a little bit stressed about it maybe.
Mayor Heather Graham:I think everyone is yeah.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so tonight's town hall will be interesting 5:30 to 7, the Art Center Okay, and as far as follow-up for next steps with the county and the city, what does that look like? So?
Mayor Heather Graham:I think today we figured out that they have four meetings before July 1st where they could propose a resolution and take a vote.
Haley Sue Robinson:The county commissioners could.
Mayor Heather Graham:To put the city on notice that they're going to be ending the IGA. So I guess we'll wait and see. At this point I have not been told specifically when that date will be or if that date was going to be ending the IGA. So I guess we'll wait and see. At this point I have not been told specifically when that date will be or if that date was going to happen.
Haley Sue Robinson:Sure, I know all three of the commissioners want to hear from the community tonight, so I encourage people to go if you're for regional or against regional or just want to voice your opinions, and I think that's one thing that was pretty well discussed both by city counselors and the county commissioners, was just the fact for public input seems like everybody really wants that yeah, yeah, and I know the county was.
Mayor Heather Graham:They're up against the timeline, sure, and you know we talked about extending the time, but doesn't seem like that's something that we can do right now.
Haley Sue Robinson:So okay, so we'll see what happens. What happens, stay tuned, okay, great, um, all right. So, uh, another big presentation from last evening. Uh was actually your presentation, uh, regarding pedco and the half cent sales tax, um, and that followed, uh, pedco's annual or semi-annual report that they come and give to council, but your presentation was specifically about the criteria, ordinance and putting forth a ballot measure, that you outlined a couple of key things that are different than what the current ordinance reads, and the three things that stood out was the economic catalyst, the economic leakage and placemaking. Can you talk a little bit about each of those?
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, so economic catalysts are going to be businesses or opportunities that come into the community. That will be large sales tax drivers. That's where house and sales tax comes from. So those might not necessarily be associated with primary jobs. When we think about putting infrastructure in for retail or fast food restaurants, those are large sales tax drivers but not always have an association with primary job. So that would be an example. An example of the leakage would be like a Costco. So we know we have a leakage within our community where we have tons of community members who drive to Colorado Springs to go shop at Costco.
Mayor Heather Graham:If we had a Costco here, we would, you know, stop that leakage. So, um, that would be one example. And then the um placemaking. So placemaking. We've heard a lot of conversations about jellystone, um, and that potentially coming to the city at this time, with the current criteria, ordinance that we have, uh, pedco or the city would never be able to incentivize a project like Jellystone because it doesn't directly relate to primary jobs. So this would give additional tools for us to be able to incentivize projects of that size with no primary job associated with it. Got it?
Haley Sue Robinson:But when you say placemaking, we obviously associate the economic impact for that, as it's driving tourism Like the Riverwalk.
Mayor Heather Graham:That can be placemaking it's also part of the RTA An aquatic center or a sports complex. Those would also be placemaking ideas, ideas. I wouldn't necessarily ever say that the city is just going to take the money and create a new park, because that wouldn't really have economic dollars associated with it.
Haley Sue Robinson:There'd be no roi on that well, I mean, it doesn't cost anything for me to go to the park, right?
Mayor Heather Graham:yeah, okay, so those are kind of. I know that that topic has been done. Now specifically, like oh well, you're. You know you're going to use this money to build a park. That's not necessarily true. Sure, okay, if it was a great park and people from all over the US were coming to visit it, then maybe, but that's not in our plans, or if there was like a pool or something that cost money associated with the park.
Haley Sue Robinson:Sure, yeah, okay. Another thing that you outlined specifically was a percentage, that 15%, of unencumbered funds. Can you explain a little bit why or how you settled on that number?
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, so we've been meeting with. So PEDCO had put together a meeting every Wednesday in which we met with past board members, current board members, members of the community, told them how we wanted to change the criteria ordinance. They were not in favor of changing the criteria ordinance but after lots of discussion we came to these three talking points the leakage, economic catalysts and placemaking and then talked about using a percentage of the unencumbered fund balance in order to drive those three different areas. So they did not want us to be able to use all of the money that's in the unencumbered, which is, as of May, $63 million. So we settled on the aggregate percentage that the city or PEDCO or any kind of economic development team would only be able to use 15% a year. So in this case, for 20.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yep per year.
Mayor Heather Graham:For this case right now, as of May's financials, we're able to use $9 million.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, okay, you want to leave us now, luz. Okay, we understand, it's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of numbers, it's a lot to digest. She's getting stressed out so that 15% then allows for the remainder of the funds still to go towards.
Mayor Heather Graham:Primary jobs.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, okay, so it's essentially just adding to what is currently happening with PEDCO and making a new designation. Okay, so they'll still have a focus on primary jobs. They, I mean one thing that PEDCO is especially good at is manufacturing. I know like one thing that Jeff Shaw talked about was the development of Publiplex, so you're not asking them to change that focus, or?
Mayor Heather Graham:deter that focus. There's been times where you know Petco has so Petco. You know they specifically had brought up Jellystone in ways that they could try to incentivize. So this just really would give them the tool. So if it wasn't the city bringing the economic prospects in, it could also be PEDCO and these might be some different avenues that they can now take if this passes city council next week.
Haley Sue Robinson:So it essentially helps us not pigeonhole the criteria quite so much. Another thing that Councillor Aleph brought up was that we've used funds similarly like for the RTA project. How did that work?
Mayor Heather Graham:Criteria ordinance has been changed at least three times that I'm aware of. So for the RTA, so we used it when we did the PBR Sports Performance Center, the Convention Center and a parking garage. The Urban Renewal Authority borrowed $14 million out of the half-cent sales tax for the contribution from the city so that had to be written into the criteria ordinance in order for city council to grant those funds. Another example is they changed the criteria ordinance to include $800 for jobs that need training that has a workforce training, yeah, so you could, the companies would get an extra $800 per employee that they were able to bring.
Mayor Heather Graham:so that wasn't. That was not in the ordinance before, so that was added and then the latest was in 2020, if everybody remembers. The city did a $5 million loan program where small businesses got grants and you could also take out a loan, and that money came from the half-cent sales tax dollars. So that was also run into the criteria ordinance.
Mayor Heather Graham:So it's been changed and it's been added too that ran into the criteria ordinance, so it's been changed and it's been added to, and it's well within city council's authority to change the criteria ordinance for when the times change in the community and, as we could see, last night, I gave the very detailed report of the businesses that have come to Pueblo in the last 10 years and you could see from 2015 to now, on average they were bringing about three businesses, and in 2020, 24 and 2025 we've seen zero, so I think that it's time to change. This has been a really big focus this year for me traveled to different communities, I know you and I have talked about it and so we were able to put a package deal together that I think the majority of city council feels comfortable with, and we heard that some of the councilors are really excited moving forward and really the change that's needed in the criteria ordinance.
Haley Sue Robinson:Sure you know. Another thing that you talked about last night, too, was the amount of money that the city's forgiven over a number of years, and so I guess my question to you is how do we prevent that from happening? We know that not all businesses brought to Pueblo will be successful. That's no necessarily fault of PEDCO or folks who are bringing in these developers or new businesses, but how do we ensure that we don't leave money on the table or we don't forgive this kind of debt?
Mayor Heather Graham:Well, I think that we collateralized in some way, way, shape or form the money that we give. We saw that we almost had $9 million that has been foregone and it's it's not the previous administration, I mean, it was city managers from years and years ago that they kind of just if a business flopped, they didn't try to collect on the dollars, and that's unfortunate because it's a $9 million that we could have either acquired property from individuals, property from individuals. Some of these businesses have come again to have some sales tax, asking for incentives, even though that they owe the city millions and millions of dollars, and so I think that the point of that was to make sure that the community knows that I'm holding people accountable and we're going to be transparent. We had a business this year who, who owed the city some money and we were able to collect a $1.3 million in back payments that they owed the city. So I think that that's a big, a big part of this right, uh, pedco and half cent sales tax.
Mayor Heather Graham:It's, it's all very secretive. Um, you know, we, we want to make sure that when we're bringing businesses here that we protect. A lot of these businesses have assigned ndas and they, they are looking at other communities at the same time. Right, trying to get the best deal. But I think when citizens pay into a fund for economic development and you see no economic development, I think it, you know, raises the questions of where is our money? How has it been spent? Is there a better way we could be spending it? Why aren't we growing like other communities are? And I think that you know. From now on, we need to be transparent about where those dollars are. Who owes those dollars to the city? We have an accountant who works in our finance department that all they do all day is have some sales tax.
Haley Sue Robinson:Specific focus is Petco and this fund.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, they reconciled the whole fund, so that's where all of those figures came from last night. We're going to start doing on-site audits to make sure that the employees. Councilor Maestri mentioned the PBR and how they were submitting documentation to us previously that she felt those employees were not working within our community. So we're going to start these on-site audit visits to make sure that, hey, if we incentivized you, we want to make sure that the 40 employees that you have are actually working in your brick and mortar.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, working in Pueblo.
Mayor Heather Graham:That's important because that's the reason why we incentivize them right? So those individuals would stay in our community and they would spend their paychecks in our community. So there's a lot of things that haven't been done in the past, but we're working to correct those, moving forward.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, a couple other questions that were asked last night. So timing-wise, technically, this, this ballot measure or this ordinate, this criteria, ordinance is good through 2026. So I guess what happens if it passes this fall? Or what happens if it fails this fall?
Mayor Heather Graham:So it's good through 2027. Okay, 2027. So PEDCO likes to run the ballot a year before to make sure that it's going to pass, okay, and if it doesn't, you know, they revamp, change their before to make sure that it's going to pass okay, um, and if it doesn't, you know, they revamp, change their campaign to make sure on the last year, they can pass it. It works, and so I think that that's smart like a buffer.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, um, I think that the city changing the criteria ordinance is going to have more people, uh, being supportive, because we're actually going to see tangible infrastructure being done within our community, something that we can say hey, your half cent sales tax dollars paid for this street light, you know. So these five businesses can come into our community and you can enjoy. So I think that this is going to be a positive thing. Um, for the ballot measure to pass, they're going to run it in november, um, so city's going to support it. Um, I think city council's going to support it, pedca's going to support it. So if this criteria ordinance passes on the 23rd, it'll go into effect the second I sign it. So that week we will be able to start advertising that we have different ways to incentivize businesses who want to come to Pueblo, and I think that's going to be huge.
Haley Sue Robinson:So we don't have to wait for the ballot measure to pass for the criteria ordinance to expand this opportunity Correct. So essentially this is something that could have.
Mayor Heather Graham:I mean not really immediate, but but almost immediate impact you know there's. We have a. We have a economic development person that is working in my office right now and we're already making the phone calls, in anticipation of this passing, for companies or prospects that maybe were looking at Pueblo but because they didn't fit within the already criteria, ordinance or the primary jobs, that maybe they're looking elsewhere. So we're currently following up and making sure that people know that we have a different alternative now and, you know, come give Pueblo a second look. So something that we're working on is something that we're laser-focused on. As you hear councils say all the time is economic development from now on.
Haley Sue Robinson:So essentially, this is, you know, know, taking that sense of urgency for our, our deficit that those cities facing and saying, hey, we're not gonna sit here and just wait, wait for sales tax to increase.
Mayor Heather Graham:Here's an immediate impact or an immediate way that we can to add to that when you see these large scale businesses that Petco tries to bring in. It could take years. You know this big project that they're working on right now. It might not even get done until 2027. So sales tax in general is not going to have an immediate impact. If we get these businesses open on the boulevard that I've been harping about for like six months, you're going to see an immediate impact when those businesses open.
Haley Sue Robinson:Well, because you know I'm going to go spend my money at Starbucks and McDonald's and all those places.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, and the car wash. You're going to get a car wash while you're there too? Probably Okay.
Haley Sue Robinson:While I'm drinking my Starbucks. Yeah, exactly, okay, okay, great, okay, thanks for outlining that timeline, because I think it's important for folks to understand the difference between the criteria ordinance and then the difference between the ballot measure and what that looks like. So then, as far as next steps, when will we see this ordinance come before council? The final reading on Monday.
Mayor Heather Graham:On the 23rd.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yep, okay, yep, okay, great, so then we'll have an update next week. Yeah, great, okay, uh, anything else that we need to talk about related to half cent sales tax or anything there I don't think so.
Mayor Heather Graham:I think you covered it okay, great.
Haley Sue Robinson:Uh, mayor, I know you wanted to talk about fireworks and, uh, this time of year, with folks being safe and yeah so continue to preach.
Mayor Heather Graham:Quit lighting fireworks off. It's not the fourth. Well, it is the 17th of june. Yep, um and lucy and all the other dogs in the community. They don't like the fireworks and the big bangs. So, um, you know. Please take that into consideration. I know, know. Fireworks are fun and exciting and your kids love them.
Haley Sue Robinson:But we all love them on the 4th of July. I think that's one thing that is most kind of obnoxious about this right now is nobody really likes them at 1030 at night or 3 am or 730 pm and one or two big bangs versus you know 17 of them or 25 of them on the 4th of July.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah.
Haley Sue Robinson:I'd rather see the whole night sky light up on the 4th of July than just one big bang in the middle of the night, type of thing Like a bomb.
Mayor Heather Graham:Mm-hmm.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, yeah, same Well. And the other part, too, is we do have free fireworks, free opportunities on the 4th of July for folks to go enjoy the Riverwalk. Yeah, csu Pueblo, yeah. So if you don't want to light illegal fireworks which would be great you could just go watch fireworks for free at either one of those places. But protect the dogs, protect the veterans, all those neighbors and our friends here in Pueblo, instead of lighting off the fireworks.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, what events do we have this weekend On the road?
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, we have on the road. That's Saturday, actually, it's Friday, saturday, sunday. Friday, sunday, sunday yeah, so lots of historic places, tours all over. I know Pueblo Transit is helping with some transportation for a Bessemer route and then a Northside route. It's going to be really exciting. I think we have close to 150 folks from all over the state coming for that, so that'll be fun. Oh, oh, also, we have movies in the park Saturday night as well. I know El Centro is packed every day with free events and programming for the kids, for summer programming. It's really hot, so they've got stuff inside, they got slime, they got basketball games, all kinds of different things to stay out of the heat and have some fun.
Mayor Heather Graham:So clean eats has their grand opening ribbon cutting yeah, saturday, so yeah that'll be great new small business that's open downtown been a ribbon cutting there.
Haley Sue Robinson:yeah, uh, pub has got talent on Yep, yeah.
Mayor Heather Graham:It's here, they're at Memorial Hall.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yep Free yes, free event for the community. Yes, check that out. Oh, and then that Habitat for Humanity cleanup, oh yeah.
Mayor Heather Graham:We have a trash cleanup Habitat for Humanity. It's going to be on Summit and Egan in Bessemer and it's 8 30 to 12 on Saturday morning. So if you got dumpsters out there clean up city is donating all the dumpsters for this project, so it's a great way to give back to your community in an area that we know is much needed yeah, so there's actually there's lots going on, yeah, this week.
Haley Sue Robinson:And um also reminder that the city will be closed on Thursday for Juneteenth. I know there's a big Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, but we'll observe it on Thursday, on actual Juneteenth.
Mayor Heather Graham:And it's going to be hot, so stay cool. It's going to be very hot this weekend, so keep your pets inside. Stay hydrated, stay hydrated, stay hydrated. All those good things. Shelter will be open for daily drop-ins, for emergency sheltering for individuals, relief from the heat Yep. So lots of good things going on, great.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, don't forget, you can find this podcast on Apple, spotify, buzzsprout, youtube. You can find it on local channel 17. And you can email us your questions or your topic suggestions. Mayor@ pueblo. us, we'll see you next week.