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 50
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In this episode, Mayor Graham covers the City Council work retreat presentation. Mayor Graham presented budget concerns and future projections with the Director of Finance, Director of HR and the City Attorney. Mayor Graham gives some insight to 2027 projected budget, what it means for this year and what planning looks like to support reducing spending and increasing revenue for the City's budget.
Plus Chief of Staff Brian McCain talks about the current legislative session. What bills are being followed by the City of Pueblo and how might it affect us? Find out more.
Celebrating 50 Episodes
Haley Sue RobinsonWelcome to the fiftieth episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. Uh my name is Haley Sue Robinson. I'm the director of public affairs for the city of Pueblo.
Mayor, Heather GrahamAnd I'm Heather Graham, City of Pueblo, Mayor. I was gonna say something else.
Haley Sue RobinsonOh, we got you so excited. We got you so excited about the 50th episode you forgot what you do or who you are and where you work.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah. How can I?
Haley Sue RobinsonI know. It's exciting, right? Can you believe we've been doing this for 50 episodes, Mayor?
Mayor, Heather GrahamI know. Almost a whole year.
Haley Sue RobinsonI've only missed one. I missed your uh Christmas episode where you and Chief of Staff McCain wished everyone uh happy holidays. Um I've only been here for 49, but 50 episodes later, here we are.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah, it feels like a hundred.
Haley Sue RobinsonI know. It feels like we've been doing it forever. I do uh want to remind the listener that you can find us on Buzzsprout, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Um and you can also email us, mayor @pueblo.us, if you have questions or topic suggestions. And since it is our 50th episode, I would like to encourage you to like, subscribe, and share with your friends so we can keep going for another 50 episodes.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah.
Haley Sue RobinsonWe'll get to a hundred.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYep.
Haley Sue RobinsonWoo. Okay. I think I'm more hyped than anyone. I know. I'm really
Setting The Budget Stage
Haley Sue Robinsonexcited. Uh okay, so Mayor, over the weekend we had the City Council work retreat. Um it was uh a long day of discussion and um it actually started off with you about a budget presentation um with our director of finance, our director of uh human resources, and then our city attorney. And so I thought if folks maybe missed the uh live stream or weren't able to attend in person, that maybe we should talk about that. Yeah, talk about that a little bit. So can you give us a little bit about the budget and your proposal that you gave to city council on Saturday?
Mayor, Heather GrahamSure. So we have our 2027 uh projections of what that looks like and it's not looking too hot. So um we're projected to only have about one point two million dollars in our reserve for twenty twenty-seven.
Haley Sue RobinsonUh and I I think you should probably tell the listener
2027 Reserves And Sales Tax Slide
Haley Sue Robinsonwhat what's the city's budget for twenty twenty-six? 117 million. Okay, 117 million, and we're gonna have one point two million left in reserves.
Mayor, Heather GrahamIf everything stays the same, right? So sales tax just stays flat, no declines, um, no additional expenditures. Um that's what we're looking at, one point two million.
Haley Sue RobinsonAnd last year we had a decrease. In sales tax.
Mayor, Heather GrahamWe did.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah, so uh
Haley Sue Robinsonright around what, five percent?
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah, like five point seven percent.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm which there was some anomalies from twenty-four to twenty-five. So in in actuality it wasn't that high uh because we had a large audit. The city audited, received around 4 million dollars.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure
Mayor, Heather Grahamfrom uh an audit that we did, and so that factors in um and that's what drives that number.
Haley Sue RobinsonThose were the large lump sums that we received
Mayor, Heather Grahamin August, September, and October, yep.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamSo that drives that uh percentage much higher than it actually is. So I mean it's not it's not terrible doom and gloom if you if you remove that four million dollars out. But um what I'm telling council and and the public is the same story I've been telling for two years since I got here, right? It's sure that our expenditures are outweighing our revenues.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm and so the only thing we can do is cut um or find a way to increase revenue. And when I'm talking about increasing revenue, I'm not talking about um you know upping the the fees at City Park at the rides, which was what we talked about this weekend. Um ten million dollars over budget, so ten point three. So if we carry that ten point three into twenty twenty seven, um we don't we don't have enough to make up uh
Haley Sue Robinsonthe difference.
Mayor, Heather GrahamThe difference. So um we're we're gonna have to start getting creative. Um obviously we're a very service uh driven business here at the city of Pueblo. All of our money goes to services, goes to goes to people providing those services, right?
Haley Sue RobinsonRight.
Mayor, Heather GrahamNot necessarily tangible items. So um our payroll at the city is a hundred million a year, roughly. And the only thing that we can reduce in our budget, we've cut nonprofit funding, we've reduced all operating in the city by fifteen percent. Um I've frozen th forty-eight
Payroll Reality And Frozen Positions
Mayor, Heather Grahampositions since I've been the mayor, so eighteen the first year, um twenty.
Haley Sue RobinsonAnd those were actually abolished. Those were gone, yeah. Frozen.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah. Um and
Haley Sue Robinsonthen you froze four oh twenty-four
Mayor, Heather Grahamin for this year's budget, and then we've frozen seven so far this year. So um
Haley Sue Robinsonso thirty-one
Mayor, Heather Grahamwe're doing what we can to to help on the top end, right? So as positions come up in the city, we don't repost, um, we hold, and so that's that's been about a three million dollar savings from uh November till now.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm and so I you know, I'm trying to get city council, especially new members of city council, prepared for what these conversations are gonna look like um come November with their budget um that they're gonna have to pass. My budget that I create, they have to pass right um to to let them know that we need to start reducing spending now, as we've been for the last two years. Um
Haley Sue Robinsonbut you're having the budget conversation earlier than normal. I mean, I feel like
Mayor, Heather Grahamwe know what the projections are, yeah.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah, yeah. We'd normally um kind of start the budget conversation, I would say, in like May. Then you uh have your internal department meetings, June, July, August. Um that was also mentioned that you would invite council to attend those meetings. Um and then we normally start to have budget presentations like September, October, and then we pass the budget in November. So um it's the beginning of March and we're having those conversations now. Why uh why did we start to have those conversations so early?
Mayor, Heather GrahamBecause we knew we're going to uh we know that we we have a huge uh a huge gap to fill. Um and we have the budget conversation every day, right, internally. Like um, what can we cut, what can we reduce,
Haley Sue Robinsonwhere can we save?
Mayor, Heather GrahamWhere can we save? Yeah, what does that look like? Um what kinds of grants can we use? What kind of money can be used for, or if it's grant dollars, can it be used for this instead of this?
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamSo we've been pretty creative um in what we've been able to do so far. And so I want city council to be aware um that twenty-seven, as I've said for two years, um will not will not be like it was in twenty five and twenty-six.
Why Start Budget Talks Early
Mayor, Heather GrahamWe do not have the revenue uh to bridge the the deficit in twenty-seven.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure. Um one thing that was mentioned or I would say maybe misunderstood, I saw a lot of comments on Facebook was that we would be closing parks.
Mayor, Heather GrahamSure. Um, parks don't close. The parks aren't going to close. Um the conversation about the parks comes comes on the back of part-time wages, right? Part-time employees. So people, seasonal and temporary employees who are not employed for this with the city all year round. So um we have about 485 total part-time employees. They work in all different um departments within the city. Right now, we're really focusing on the seasonal hires uh for the parks department. So we're not picking on parks, but they're the ones that we need to hire within two weeks. So our union contracts state that if we are going to reduce staffing, it has to be reduced like this part-time, probationary, and then permanent. So if we are going to furlough people, um fire people, um, you cannot touch full-time people until you've gone, you've made the attempt to reduce part-time to uh probationary to then permanent. That is in all three of our union's contracts. It's uh protection for their members, for their employees. Um, they don't want to do that, the city doesn't want to do that, right? What are we we're gonna hire we're gonna fire our longstanding employees and hire part-time people to come do the work of long-standing employees, like that's not what we're trying to do. But what we're trying to do is get ahead of it. Um and if that means reducing services now so that we can keep full-time employees for 2027's budget, that's something that City Council is going to need to look at. Um March uh 13th is when our hiring will begin for uh our pools, horticulture, um, concessions, kiddy rides, uh adult and um kids' sports. So the city provides these additional quality of life services to the community. Um and they're all part-time employees who provide these services, right? And so I think that city council needs to look at not just parks, but overall how to reduce our part-time um wages
Part-Time Cuts vs Full-Time Jobs
Mayor, Heather Grahamso that we can try to save our full-time people. Um and the reason parks is talked about is because their hiring starts in two weeks, and so I needed some kind of direction from city council. So city council's been provided um what it looks like for all part-time people within each department, what they do. The city pays, so in 2025, we paid three and a half million dollars in part-time wages um throughout throughout all departments. Um, so I have asked city council to look at reducing um not just parks or pools, um, but part-time, hiring part-time employees overall to save full-time staff here at the city.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm and what could that look like? It could it could look like opening two of the four pools, it could look like reducing hours at the rides, it could look like reducing programs, um, but the parks will remain open. I heard one of the council members ask about, well, are the bathrooms gonna remain open? Yes. Um, we still have full-time employees who who tend to the the greenery, um, tend to the bathrooms, help and coordinate with kids in adult programs, help and coordinate with the rides, help and coordinate with the pools. Um, but what does that look like?
Haley Sue RobinsonSo we have like supervisors and those are full-time positions.
Mayor, Heather GrahamBut what does that look like if we are asked to reduce?
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamBecause in 2027, the city will not have a choice.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamBecause of the CBAs to reduce part-time staff, uh, probationary, and then full-time. So um for for people who are watching, it's a it's kind of hard to to grasp.
Haley Sue RobinsonIt's complex.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm and it's it's not just we're picking on parks, we we want to close the pools, that's that's not what we want to do. Um, but the city council needs to uh decide is it 26 that we look at reducing services, um, or does something drastically change for 27 or in 27 are all part-time people go on?
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah, so do we start to make the reduction in force this year so that then we potentially have the ability to have that reduced force next year rather than just nobody services at all.
Mayor, Heather GrahamSo um I think that that I think that city council has you know some things to review and and think about. So they've been given um, you know, the revenues that are generated by each of the pools, the parks, the concessions, the um the sports, um and they've also been given the other all of the other part-time employees within the city.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm so they can see what what part-time staff. I presented this to city council a year ago.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah. Last June, I think you um did the full presentation.
Mayor, Heather GrahamThis is what will come. So now we are at that point of we're here. We've arrived at tough decisions are going to are going to have to be made.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure. And I know um there were a lot of discussions about what our counterparts at the county are going through. You know, what does this look like as far as um
Pools, Parks, And Service Levels
Haley Sue Robinsonand you mentioned it, uh furloughs or uh laying off employees or um unpaid holidays, all all those things. Um one thing in particular that you mentioned um and I think this is helpful for folks folks to understand is um CBA, so that's collective bargaining agreement.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYep.
Haley Sue RobinsonUm and so you talked about what the unions have uh uh agreed to. Um what does that look like moving forward?
Mayor, Heather GrahamSo we know we we met with all the unions this year, uh, because we know we don't we don't believe that we have the ability to pay, right? We sure don't have the ability to pay all three.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm and so we had some really good conversations. The Page Union has graciously agreed to take a zero. They want to continue a partnership, um, and they want to protect their people, right?
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamThey would rather take a zero to make sure that uh their employees are gonna be protected for 2027. Uh same thing with PD. So they've essentially agreed. Um Page's contract will be on Monday. PD's won't be on uh till later this month or early April.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUh Fire is in negotiations this year, so we're still working through what that looks like uh with fire. But our employees understand, they get it. Uh we're thankful they're trying to be a good partner um to the city.
Haley Sue RobinsonAnd um and I think one thing in particular that's important is that um you know, although we don't want to make these hard choices, um you're you're willing to have those hard conversations. I I think we can both agree we don't want to close any pools.
Mayor, Heather GrahamNo.
Haley Sue RobinsonUh we don't want to reduce any services. Uh I think if we could continue to pave $10 million in roads every year um and have as many amenities as possible for our community, that's actually what we want to do. Um so these aren't choices that uh make anyone especially happy or um excited about making these difficult choices, but they're necessary.
Mayor, Heather GrahamRight.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay. Um
Mayor, Heather GrahamThere's like a you know a lot of conversation too with the the cab and the PMJC about you know why well if we're in the position we're in, why did the city you know buying air conditioning?
Haley Sue RobinsonBuy those buildings,
Mayor, Heather Grahambuy this building for the staff. Um and I've made it very clear to city council, to the public.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm those two specific projects are capital improvement projects within the city.
Haley Sue RobinsonYes.
Mayor, Heather GrahamThey are not being paid for by
Tough Choices And Timeline For Reductions
Mayor, Heather Grahamthe general fund.
Haley Sue RobinsonSo those don't affect the the deficit of
Mayor, Heather Grahamthe general deficit
Haley Sue Robinsongeneral fund that we have right now.
Mayor, Heather GrahamThen so they're being paid. So the half cent sales tax collects interest every year. That interest can only be allocated to capital needs within the city. So buildings, uh infrastructure, something capital tangible. So we are paying our loan payment out of the half-cent sales tax interest account that can only be used. So these buildings that we have purchased, they have absolutely uh no connection with the general fund or why the city is in uh the shape that the city's in.
Haley Sue RobinsonSo when people say, you know, that was a seven million dollar purchase or that was, you know, nine million dollar investment, and so we're just spending all our money away, that's incorrect.
Mayor, Heather GrahamIt is.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYep.
Haley Sue RobinsonI think that's a good clarification.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYou can find them in the uh capital improvement line in the budget book, very back of the book. Um you can see that we only spent $200,000 out of the general fund and capital for 2026, and that was a grant match for the housing department.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamEvery other tangible capital project came out of interest occurred incurred from half cent sales tax. Um and you can you can see it listed in there.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure. Okay. That's good clarification as well. Um I I think another thing that you spoke about with council was uh the need to increase revenue and what that potentially looks like. So I assume we're gonna continue to have those conversations.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah, I mean, so you know, we we um we have to do something, right? I mean, it doesn't matter it doesn't matter how much money I close an account and revert back to the gen like those that's one time money. So that's not a continuous stream of revenue. I mean, everybody's heard me say it. The city gets three pennies for every dollar that's spent in the community. Um that it's amazing that the city's been able to um subtain
Capital Projects Clarified
Mayor, Heather Grahamto where we are today, but a lot of that has to do with because we don't have police officers. So we budget for 231, um, we have 150. So that money rolls over every single year, and that is what keeps the the city afloat.
Haley Sue RobinsonRight.
Mayor, Heather GrahamThe good news is we're hiring police officers, so we don't have that money to roll over every year. So you're also saving
Haley Sue RobinsonIt's like a catch twenty-two. Like we're glad that the the force is increasing and that we're uh increasing police officers that are available to respond, but that's also a a little bit been our saving grace for
Mayor, Heather Grahamtwenty years.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah. So now you're now you're seeing that uh general fund future appropriations line not what it was, right?
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Mayor, Heather GrahamAnd because I've frozen all these positions in the city, you're also not seeing that money carry over. So I have done everything within my ability. Um so now it's it's going to take some some help from the city council um to to figure out what we're gonna do for 2027. We also are bringing forward a voluntary separation program for employees. If you've worked at the city, um on March 9th, you're gonna be able to apply if you're ready for retirement. And the city will um you know, you'll you'll come, you'll s you'll say your intent is what your intent is, how many years you've worked, uh, the max amount of payout is gonna be twenty five thousand dollars if you've worked twenty-five years or more.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamUm and w once you decide to retire in May, that's how quickly it will be. Um
Haley Sue RobinsonMarch to May.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYep, March to May will be the whole process. Um so the city will will pay this employee out with the um budgeted money from their specific position for
Revenue Limits And Police Staffing Catch-22
Mayor, Heather Graham2026. All of their money will be uh uh salary savings back into the general fund, and then we'll freeze that position as they leave. So it's it's another way to um increase attrition uh at the city uh to try to save the city some additional dollars.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure. And I know that's one thing that a couple of members of council voice too is that we have this growing government or that we've just increased how many employees we have. But uh you said forty-eight or forty-nine folks that you've frozen since you've been in office.
Mayor, Heather GrahamSo the city of Pueblo has seven hundred and fifty-nine employees. I know this because I had to look it up because there was some unfactual information that was being spread on social media last week saying the city employed two two thousand people, which is fake news. So seven hundred and fifty-nine. So take seven hundred and fifty-nine, we have two hundred and thirty-one sworn officers, right?
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Mayor, Heather GrahamAnd we have about a hundred and seventy firemen. So you take that minus a seven hundred fifty-nine, and you're left with a little over three hundred and fifty. So three hundred and fifty general service supporting employees for police and fire and public safety in a city of 110,000 people. That's not really a lot of people.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah. Uh especially when to your point earlier, we're a service driven uh organization. So, you know, transportation, paving roads,
Mayor, Heather Grahampaving, engineers, um, attorneys, finance,
Haley Sue Robinsonhousing, infrastructure, yeah, wastewater. Yeah, yeah, the services we provide are are tangible things that people can see or They use uh drive on our roads every day, uh play at our parks, all those things. Okay. Um anything else that we didn't cover from the discussion Saturday?
Mayor, Heather GrahamI don't think so.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay. I think I think that was a good remote.
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah, more into conversations, um, but we're not closing the parks. We're not we're we're we're looking at what needs to be done um in a reduction overall in the city, not just parks or pools or kitty rides or um programs. That's that's not the goal.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure. Okay. That sounds great. Um we also need to have a legislative update. Um that's been something that we haven't talked about yet so far, but
Mayor, Heather GrahamI don't want to talk about that. It's trash.
Haley Sue RobinsonWe uh we had a pretty lengthy update last night though from our lobbyists. So Brian, I thought maybe you could give us um some insight on
Voluntary Separation Program
Haley Sue Robinsonthe bills that the city is following and what that looks like up at the state capitol.
Brian McCainYeah, so um kind of the most talked-about bill at the Capitol right now that our lobbyist brought up first is the uh Senate Bill 26-97, which is the decriminalize adult commercial sexual activity that was introduced by our senator here, Nick Hendrickson. Basically, what it does is decriminalize prostitution and he has it and they have it as a issue of statewide concern. So if this passes, it means that we cannot say as a municipality that we want to keep prostitution illegal in Pueblo.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Brian McCainUm this, if you go on the state legislative website, this is the most heated bill right now.
Haley Sue RobinsonRight.
Brian McCainAnd that's why our lobbyists brought it up and that it really originated from Pueblo. Um some of the other ones, if you've been following, there's a trio of bills starting with um.
Haley Sue RobinsonBefore you wait, before you go to those others, I think one thing that's important is uh about a week and a half ago, Chief Noeller did an interview um with the public chieftain and they asked for some stats for prostitution. Um and we had two um last year and one the year before and one the year prior. So uh this isn't necessarily something that
Mayor, Heather Grahamstatewide concern.
Haley Sue RobinsonWell, or or even local concern, I I would say in Pueblo as far as uh prosecution of criminal activity specific to prostitution.
Brian McCainYes.
Haley Sue RobinsonI we know we get a lot of calls for service or folks are concerned about it, but as far as prosecution of the crime, we we literally have a handful.
Brian McCainYeah, and I think that that's across the board from what I've heard on some of the people talking about it. Um generally, if it's considered statewide concern, it means that there's a problem. So one
Right-Sizing Workforce Numbers
Brian McCainspecific example would be um the needle exchanges. So that was aimed a statewide concern.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Brian McCainAnd that's because this was an issue in all communities across the board. Um this um I think Gil said it right where he's broken in predicting what will come up and how far it will go. So um again, this is one that you can reach out to your Senator Nick Henrickson here in Pueblo and we'll post that information if you have concerns with this. Um there's a few other ones that we've talked about that the city and council um passed a resolution opposing. It's House Bill 1037. Um also let me go through this. I believe it's Senate Bill 1070 and 1071. And what those do is they'll severely impact our um I'm sorry, it was Senate Bill 70 and Senate Bill 71. Um they'll severely impact our real-time crime center because they deal with both our purchase of data, surveillance, um LPRs. That's talked about a lot. Um these bills, I know um Senate Bill 70, um the testimony went to like midnight the other night on it.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay,
Brian McCainThey are amending it. Um there's a fiscal note on it, so they're saying that it may be too expensive to implement on a local municipality, but then they may roll over some of that to Senate Bill 71.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Brian McCainSo they may just take it and put it in another bill and push it forward. But if these pass, it will severely hinder our real-time crime center. I know Denver has one. I believe Castle Rock has one, and there's a few other ones um that are being set up.
Haley Sue RobinsonAurora's been standing one up.
Brian McCainI think Aurora has one. Um Denver has the drones as first responders, similar to Pueblo.
Haley Sue RobinsonYep.
Brian McCainUm, this will basically make it nearly impossible to do the job, which our real-time crime center, there's
Parks Aren’t Closing Clarified
Brian McCainone specific case that uh would not have been able to be solved if these were signed into law where there was a a shooting and they had to take this data, and the the shooting was random. The person that was killed was not connected to the person committing the shooting and using our real-time crime center, including our LPRs, they were able to go back and track this and find the suspect and bust the suspect and basically make the arrest. So those are those are three, and we'll post the links to those, but they're actively being pushed right now. Um, one thing the legislature likes to do is they say no more bills after this date, and then magically every day there's more bills that are dropped.
Haley Sue RobinsonYes,
Brian McCainlike this one specifically that would um impact our Pura, Urban Renewal Authority. I think they introduced it either Thursday or
Shift To State Legislative Update
Brian McCainFriday last week, and then it's already up. So the the way council works, you know, if we do a resolution like these other three bills, it takes two weeks, you know, at least to get a resolution. But when you drop a bill Thursday and start having hearings and talking about it the next week, that's impossible for us to take an official position like that. So um individually, the councillors all did sign a letter opposed to um Senate Bill 26129, which mitigate impacts of tax increment financing, which is TIFF, that um urban renewal uses for development, um, economic development, revitalization, jobs. This is all tied to economic development and um building back our city, um fighting blight in the community, these sort of things. So this just puts it makes it more complicated, puts more regulations on it, and
Mayor, Heather Grahamit's changes the time frame, right?
Brian McCainIt changes the timeframe.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah, from 25 to 15. Yeah, yeah.
Brian McCainYeah. Um, I think that one they may have amended out, but there's still other ones on it that it creates uncertainty,
Prostitution Decriminalization Bill
Brian McCainwhat it is. So one of the most important things in economic development that I've learned in my career, it's if you have uncertainty and uncertainty, it hinders economic development. And this will create a lot of uncertainty and basically take those tools away that Pura or any urban renewal uses to for economic development and removing blight. Um so there was that one, and we are officially opposed to that one now. Um there is one other one that that was spoken about last night that's actually a positive bill. Um it's House Bill 26-1140, and this is local government impact hearings. And um Representative Ty Winner, who covers a sliver of Pueblo, um, this is one of his, and it's actually moving forward. We thought that it would be dead in the water, and it's on second reading today. So, what this does is it takes five bills that would impact a local government.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Brian McCainFor instance, like the real-time crime center bills, and it would require that they do hearings on those with the local government. So it's
Haley Sue Robinsonfor specific municipalities
Brian McCainfor um no less than an hour and no more than two hours of the five bills. Um I I I think originally they wanted to do sort of like a field hearing so they would have the hearing here in Pueblo or wherever it would be.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Brian McCainBut the way I read it, I think it would be at the state, but they would identify these five bills, and they would be required to have a hearing in front of the entire body
Haley Sue Robinsonto find out how it affects us locally. So got it.
Brian McCainLast year we did the um fairness um and transparency in municipal court. Um, the mayor, the chief, um, city attorney, they were up there weekly testifying on this, sometimes at one in the morning, which they like to do. Um, this would require them to have this hearing in front of everybody to hear why we're opposed to it.
Haley Sue RobinsonSo it wouldn't happen in the middle of the night. Folks would actually hear this.
Brian McCainThey would schedule it, yeah. You would have a spot, you wouldn't have to go stand in line for what, what do
Crime Center Bills And Public Safety Tools
Brian McCainwe do, like 10 hours one day just waiting to talk about it. So I I'm excited about this one. I know a lot of people have talked about doing this for years. Um, 15 years ago, this was a topic of how this impacts local jurisdictions, and it's always been pushed aside. And then when Gil Romero told me last night that it's on second reading today, I was kind of shocked that they're actually moving it forward, and it has some support on both sides of the aisles. So that's
Haley Sue Robinsonokay.
Brian McCainThat'll be a good one. Um currently we're tracking about 67 bills that will impact Pueblo.
Haley Sue RobinsonWow.
Brian McCainUnfortunately, I would say 60 of those are negative.
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay.
Brian McCainUm everything from land use bills, um, there's one that makes it so that you have to allow um development or somebody to build a single family home on a 2,000 square foot piece of land. So I think right now we're at about 2,500. There are some areas we actually do allow this in some areas, but it would go through and say, nope, you can no longer have your planning and zoning like limit the size of a lot that you're doing.
Mayor, Heather GrahamI wish they would take a year off or five.
Haley Sue RobinsonThe legislature?
Mayor, Heather GrahamYeah.
Brian McCainWell, I think I I haven't spoken about this in over a year, but you know, one of the one of the problems I see is that you're allowed as a legislator to introduce up to five bills. It doesn't mean you have to do five bills. What that turned into was everybody does five bills, no matter what.
Haley Sue RobinsonYeah,
Brian McCainWe get hit with like 700 pieces of legislation.
Haley Sue RobinsonHe said this is the most legislation he's seen in in his career, and and it's at a at a max pace. He said, you know, we're last night we were 50 days in, so today's day 51.
Brian McCainYeah.
Haley Sue RobinsonUm and it's full speed ahead for the remaining 69 days.
Brian McCainThe other thing is they do have a deadline to introduce bills, which should have been, I think, two weeks ago, and then the majority leader or the president can say, like, allow bills to be introduced later. And we've seen that, you know, some of these bills came out the two days before that the legislature was supposed to close.
Haley Sue RobinsonSure.
Brian McCainAnd I mean, just this week and last week alone, we're seeing them daily being introduced. Um, like that there's another transit bill that would severely um put a unfunded mandate on our transit system. Um, luckily, they've been very vocal about that, all the municipalities, because some of them they're to the point where that they just won't have public transit anymore if it passes.
Haley Sue RobinsonWhich isn't an option. I I mean
Brian McCainThe the latest on that is they may amend it um to only include ridership of over 10 million, which
Urban Renewal And TIF Under Threat
Brian McCainwould basically be RTD, would be the only one that that impacts. So they actually listen listen on that one if they do amend it. But um that's kind of my update now. Um I can send a list if you want to post that too for everybody to look at and see what's going on.
Haley Sue RobinsonCool.
Brian McCainAnd we'll get that up here in the next day or so.
Haley Sue RobinsonThat sounds great. Okay.
Brian McCainYep.
Haley Sue RobinsonYou like getting people riled up.
Mayor, Heather GrahamOkay. Sure.
Brian McCainI think too, like specifically with some of these like the urban renewal bill, right? Nobody knows what that's about. And if you just glance at it, you'd be like, what I don't care. But then when you read how that severely hinders our economic development and our partner with um Pura here, it's terrible for the community. But the average person won't look at that and say, you know, that's a bad thing.
Haley Sue RobinsonWell, they just don't understand. I think and I think that's kind of to your point of the mass influx of bills, it's really difficult for the average everyday citizen to track these and understand how this could potentially impact us. And we might not see the impact today in Pueblo, but something with TIFF, uh you know, 15 15 to 25 years. There's a big difference. Yeah. Um, so it's important.
Brian McCainYeah.
Haley Sue RobinsonGreat. Okay. Thanks, Brian. I appreciate it. Uh Mayor, anything else that you want to add?
Mayor, Heather GrahamNo
Haley Sue RobinsonOkay. That sounds great. Um thank you again for 50 episodes. And I want to remind the listener, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on local channel 17. And uh you can email us at mayor @pueblo.us for your questions or topic suggestions. And we will see you next week.