The Mayor's Mixtape

The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 36

• City of Pueblo • Episode 36

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Episode 36 of the Mayor's Mixtape is here. Happy Veterans Day to all who have served our country, especially the 13,000 veterans who call Pueblo home. 

Mayor Graham talks about what's next post-election and what to expect with the City of Pueblo. She gives a break down of the City Council meeting from Monday, November 10 with the Convergys project and the employee health clinic with Crossover Health. 

Don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Leave us a review! Email your topic suggestions or questions at mayor@pueblo.us. 

Haley Sue Robinson:

Welcome to the 36th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs for the City of Pueblo.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

And I'm Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And you can find our podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Buzzsprout, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on channel 17. And don't forget, if you have questions or a topic suggestion, you can email us mayor@pueblo.us. Uh first before we start, Mayor, I think we should wish all of our veterans happy Veterans Day.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yes, happy Veterans Day.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Happy Veterans Day to everyone. Uh last night at City Council um we had a proclamation for our purple heart recipients. And um I thought it was really interesting. Sal Katz mentioned that we have 13,000 veterans here in Pueblo. Um and you think about that, uh a city, 113,000 people, so 13,000 veterans.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Tenth of our population.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, that's it's pretty incredible. So I just want to say thank you to all of our veterans who have served. And um, you know, it just makes us really proud to be the home of heroes today and a nice reminder of um why it's great to be an American for the people who have served our country.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah. Also, we have over a hundred veterans who um work for the City of Pueblo. So we also have quite a few veterans um who work for us, which is incredible. Okay. Um we took a little brief hiatus last week.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Um but I thought maybe we could have a little bit of election follow-up. So I wanted to see if there was anything you wanted to talk about in particular after the election, mayor.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

It's a good day in Pueblo, because I'm still the mayor here for the 36th episode. Um so ballot measures that passed were um

Haley Sue Robinson:

2B, the half-cent sales tax.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Half cent sales tax, um, keeping the half-cent sales tax for an additional five years starting in 2027.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yep. and then 2F.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

2F, which was uh allowing the city employees uh to run for office. So um

Haley Sue Robinson:

and that that allows uh city employees to run for office, which still excludes city council. We can't run for city council, that would be a conflict of interest the entire time, and none of us would ever be able to vote on anything. Um but it allows folks to run for school board, for senate, um Congress, things like that.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, so uh those both passed and we're happy about that.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, the 1% overwhelmingly failed.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Sure did.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Um the changing the city manager failed. And then the pay raise for a municipal uh uh officials also failed.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And then um also binding arbitration

Heather Graham, Mayor:

and binding arbitration

Haley Sue Robinson:

for our um union failed as well. Yeah, yeah. So two two out of six. We had a lot of ballot measures.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, there was a lot of ballot measures.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah. Um, quite a few for the city. I know also we ran quite a few uh last November, and I think a lot of folks are just surprised by the changes that we're making um or proposing for that matter.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

You know, what people didn't understand is everything that we do is based off of the charter.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Right.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

And the city council nor I can just change the charter. I mean, even if it's changing a word, um that has to go in front of a vote of the people. So I know last year we had a lot of cleanup of language that's just outdated or incorrect now at this point, and so anytime that we have to change anything in the charter has to go to a vote of the people.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah. Um but also great to see um that we're making these changes or proposing these changes, and I think it also helps people maybe get a little more involved and ask some questions.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, yeah. And we have um three new city council members. So can big congratulations to Ted Hernandez, District Three. Yes, uh Selena Gomez for At Large. Brett Boston retained his seat for at large.

Haley Sue Robinson:

He's technically officially an elected official now.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

And then uh Diane Dante for um district one. So look forward to the changeup and um working with everybody. Everybody was there in the audience last night uh for the city council meeting. So I think that that's super important. I've seen I've seen a lot of um when they were just candidates before coming and listening to the budget discussions, um, and I think that that's really important when you're gonna, you know, just run for office that you're involved and that you know what's what's going on. So we're gonna take some time over the next couple weeks and um sit down with each of the new members and um

Haley Sue Robinson:

Get them up to speed.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Get them up to speed, take them around and introduce them to different departments and directors, um, and just see how we can we can help them.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great. Um and then they will be officially sworn in uh January twelfth. Uh that's the first uh regular meeting in January. And then um we also have a new civil service commissioner, Steven Rodriguez, and he will be sworn in at that same meeting as well. So um we'll have four four new members sworn in at that meeting, and then we'll welcome them to the city. Great, yeah. Cool. Okay, uh so we'll talk about city council um last night. Um they approved the service agreement with uh crossover health for the employee health clinic, which is proposed to go in the Dittmer building. Um and if folks aren't um maybe familiar with the Dittmer building, that's the building that's right before you get into uh City Park.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

The old surgery center.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Correct. And um our HR director, Marisa Pacheco, stated that her staff report that this would save the city um about 2.6 million over the next couple of years. Uh what are the next steps for the the health clinic?

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, so now we um have entered into an agreement.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Um it's very minimal renew renovations to the space, so they're only gonna be occupying the first floor.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

The second and third floor will remain um occupied by our parks department, which are have all been currently in that building.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Sure.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Um so it's gonna be a shared space.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Um and it I mean it's it's some paint, it's some new doors, um, it's very minimal renovations because we haven't really done any work to that building um pending

Haley Sue Robinson:

and it was a former clinic anyway.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, pending the outcome of city council approving the contract. So um I think Mrs. Pacheco said that it would be first quarter, you know, around March by the time we are actually um up and running. So uh super, super cool, super successful um project overall, the whole self-insurance plan for the City of Pueblo would save the city a ton of money and hoping to continue to save money. And also give a perk for our employees um and their families, um, being able to have a health clinic that you can go to um, you know, any time of the day, get in right away.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Um we have 1,800 people on our health insurance plan between employees and their families. And so if you really think about that, if I mean the majority of those employees go to the health clinic, that really frees up a lot of space um in our community. And so we have we know we have such a need for physicians, primary care physicians, um, that this is going to be beneficial for everybody.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, you know, I I think there's a l we have a lot of great benefits as employees uh of the city and and there's some things that our HR department has done um regularly, like you know, flu shot clinic or uh B12 and acupuncture or um you know our our wellness fair that we do every year. But this is something that I think there's a little bit of hesitation from some folks who are everyday taxpayers of like, hey, how does this benefit us? But I think you nailed it when you said, you know, when we have 1,800 people that are served by our health insurance plan, that allows more people the opportunity to seek their own primary care physician. And and that's an issue uh in a in a lot of cities. It's not unique to Pueblo.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

And this is also solely being paid by the employees.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, we're paying for it.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Right. So it's not coming out of our general fund. Um, it's coming out of our self-insurance reserve, so money that they have paid in since um 2019, and and this is what the employees want to do, and so we're gonna we're gonna support that.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah. I uh I know it'll also be great just, you know, for our our first responders. Um also, you know, we have really good health benefits for whether it be therapy or just regular checkups and things like that. And so it just it gives us an opportunity that I don't have to worry about do I have to drive across town and wait in line and do I have to wait a couple weeks or hours and hours at urgent care or something like that.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

That's what really costs the city is um when there's no other option in uh employee ends of going to the emergency room for something that could have been taken care of at a a primary care visit.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah. So it's exciting. Uh we're looking forward to it. Okay, um also last night council approved the six hundred thousand dollars for the Convergys site redevelopment this passed five to two. And I know this was one of your major blight issues that you talked about in your press conference a couple weeks ago.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Um so can you talk I know we've talked a little bit about this project. Can you talk a little bit more?

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, so this is this is a public-private um development going on at the Convergys, so Northern and Orman, a large call center that's the roof has caved in, it's caught on fire. Um it's a huge blighted area for Bessemer. It's also in a TIFF district. So the city is going to help to incentivize uh Circle K, um, which is going to be purchasing the entire property from Convergys. They are going to have a gas station and a small food market, 1,200 square feet food market. Um it's right in the middle of the food desert, so that's great. And Circle K only needs uh 40% of the entire property, so they'll be on the first half butting up to Northern Avenue, and then they are going to um give the city the other 1.6 um acres, and then the city is going to turn around and offer it to a housing uh developer to try to bring some workforce housing in. So it's a project that touches um many of the needs of the community when we're talking about food, blight removal, um, and housing. So the city is going to use six hundred thousand dollars. That money comes from um previous years budgeted demolition accounts. So the city budgeted budgets a couple hundred thousand dollars um every year to remove blighted property.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Right.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

And if you look, you know, if you look at those those project numbers, you'll see like CI 1405. Well, the 14 in the middle of it stands for that money was allocated in 2014. So you can see in some of those projects um that that money has just been sitting in these accounts for 10 years. So that was one of the things when I first became the mayor is going through all the city's financials in any of those accounts that had remaining balances, um putting them to good use, right?

Haley Sue Robinson:

Closing those project accounts and consolidating the money.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

And reusing the money. And so that's where all of this funding is coming from. It's coming from uh demolition accounts that had, you know, previously be had been budgeted, and maybe the project didn't take up the entire amount of money that was budgeted.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And then um, you know, I I think there were some good questions from Counselor Gomez about safety concerns, and so um our housing director, Melissa Cook, um, addressed some of those things, such as, you know, if we if we put up attainable housing, um what about safety or uh security for that property and ensuring that it is a a good safe neighborhood? And so uh Melissa had addressed that as something that she spoke spoke about with uh counselor Latino and um it was the compass point apartments that are in his district and putting up some fencing. Is that something that we can put as part of our RFP process or talk to a developer?

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Sure. I mean it's something that we can ask for, but um

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

We're not talking I mean, this is attainable affordable housing. You're still talking twelve to fourteen hundred dollars a month potentially for rent. I mean that's

Haley Sue Robinson:

you're talking about my mortgage payment.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so it's not that it's low income, it's not that it's

Haley Sue Robinson:

not cheap. Yeah,

Heather Graham, Mayor:

It's not bad. It's um you uh counselor Gomez lives across the street.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Sure.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

You know, he sees um what's happening now with the with the the burned out, blighted area, um, so he can attest to the issues uh with crime. And so we're hoping if something you know new comes in, new housing comes in, new neighbors come in, a grocery store comes in, um, you're gonna see a fence starting maybe the end of this week going up around Bessemer Park. This is how you start to clean up and revitalize some of those areas um where we see the most crime happening, where we see the most drug trafficking happening is you go in and you rebuild. Um and so I think that this is gonna be really good uh for the heart of Bessemer.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Sure. I think um, you know, one thing that we've seen um as a decrease to crime. I take, for example, the former Roadway Inn. So we had many, many calls for service, right? And and now that that property has been cleaned up, it's been addressed, um, I mean the calls for service have significantly decreased. We've heard from a lot of the uh businesses in the area how much better their business is. And so I think what we hope to see is, I mean, obviously you're gonna see a decrease in calls for service for the fires that are started because there's nothing to set on fire anymore once it's uh demoed. Um, but then you know, there's not as many places to hide and um do all the nefarious things that folks are doing there. And so you're gonna see calls for service with the police department drop there too. Um and then to your point, uh addressing a need in our community, you know, whether it's homes in Bessemer, it's uh apartments on the west side, or um in field development, we know that we need more housing in Pueblo, and so um this is gonna be a really great opportunity.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Oh, super exciting.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great. Okay. Um let's see. Oh, you know, and I I know we've talked about this before as well, but you did mention it that it is a TIFF district, and uh I know Counselor Boston brought this up about it being a catalyst project. Um can you talk a little bit about how or why this is defined as a a catalyst project?

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah, so there's this will be the only new project that's going to be going up within this TIFF district. Um so because the property is burned and blighted um and it's gonna be demoed, instead of having a low property value on that site, having new development come in is gonna raise the property taxes.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Got it. Okay.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Which will start generating above the base for any any type of new public improvements um for that area.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great. So once we um see that circle K go up, that that property value um will increase. Will increase and and then we'll

Heather Graham, Mayor:

that increase then stays in that district and it can be tapped in to do public improvements.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And that can benefit other businesses in the neighborhood. It's not like it just benefits only that square block or

Heather Graham, Mayor:

anybody in that district.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great. Okay, cool. Okay. Um anything else about last night's city council meeting that you think we should cover?

Heather Graham, Mayor:

I think that that's it.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Last night was uh first reading in the budget.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson:

We'll have uh second reading, final reading on November 24th. Um and we're looking forward to that. Uh but other than that, um you know, not not very many. We had all the uh like four four ordinances passed and then we uh special had the special districts. Yep. Um but what we're looking forward to is is the budget on November 24th. Uh I think if if folks are interested in looking at the budget, they can still go to uh the city clerk's office, they can come to the finance office, you can see it at um any of the library branches, you can also see it online. So if folks are confused or have questions or even just want to look at it uh and see what we're planning for in 2026, they're able to do that as well. Um but this is this is a fun time of year. Uh I know we had a lot of fun with Halloween, but I know this is one of your favorite times of year.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yes, I have my trees up for two already.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And we're it was funny. We had some people come into the office yesterday and they said it looks like holiday confusion because we still have a couple pumpkins up and some Halloween decor. Um, but we're transitioning to uh, you know, Christmas time. I know the county.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

We have our giving tree for El Centro. Mm-hmm.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And then uh the counties getting ready for their courthouse lighting. We'll have the river walk lighting. Um, we'll also have the Parade of lights.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson:

There's a lot of really fun, um, Pueblo centered um

Heather Graham, Mayor:

traditions. Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, I really love it. So I'm looking forward to that. We also have something exciting uh here in the office this Friday. Boys and Girls Club is gonna do an art installation. Um, you have a partnership with uh Pueblo Arts Alliance and Boys and Girls Club said, Hey, Arts Alliance, can you help us? We'd like to put up some of our students' artwork, so we'll have that on Friday, and we're looking forward to seeing that. They just had a big installation over at uh Rawlings Library for the month of October, so now we'll get to have it here in the mayor's office. And then um just all these holiday events coming up.

Heather Graham, Mayor:

Busy time.

Haley Sue Robinson:

It is a busy time. Yeah. Okay, great. Well, um, you can get this podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcast. Don't forget you can email us your topic suggestions or questions at mayor@pueblo.us and we'll see you next week.