The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 50

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. 

Transcript

Celebrating 50 Episodes

Haley Sue Robinson 0:08

Welcome 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 Graham 0:21

And I'm Heather Graham, City of Pueblo, Mayor. I was gonna say something else.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:28

Oh, 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 Graham 0:36

Yeah. How can I?

Haley Sue Robinson 0:38

I know. It's exciting, right? Can you believe we've been doing this for 50 episodes, Mayor?

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:43

I know. Almost a whole year.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:45

I'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 Graham 0:59

Yeah, it feels like a hundred.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:01

I 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 Graham 1:28

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:28

We'll get to a hundred.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:29

Yep.

Setting The Budget Stage

Haley Sue Robinson 1:30

Woo. Okay. I think I'm more hyped than anyone. I know. I'm really excited. 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 Graham 2:17

Sure. 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.

2027 Reserves And Sales Tax Slide

Haley Sue Robinson 2:37

Uh and I I think you should probably tell the listener what 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 Graham 2:51

If 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 Robinson 3:03

And last year we had a decrease. In sales tax.

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:08

We did.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:09

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:09

Yeah, so uh

Haley Sue Robinson 3:11

right around what, five percent?

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:12

Yeah, like five point seven percent.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:14

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:15

Um 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 Robinson 3:28

Sure

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:28

from uh an audit that we did, and so that factors in um and that's what drives that number.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:34

Those were the large lump sums that we received

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:36

in August, September, and October, yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:38

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:38

So 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 Robinson 4:01

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:02

Um 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 Robinson 4:31

the difference.

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:32

The 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 Robinson 4:48

Right.

Payroll Reality And Frozen Positions

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:48

Not 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 positions since I've been the mayor, so eighteen the first year, um twenty.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:16

And those were actually abolished. Those were gone, yeah. Frozen.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:19

Yeah. Um and

Haley Sue Robinson 5:21

then you froze four oh twenty-four

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:25

in for this year's budget, and then we've frozen seven so far this year. So um

Haley Sue Robinson 5:32

so thirty-one

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:34

we'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 Robinson 5:49

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:49

Um 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 Robinson 6:16

but you're having the budget conversation earlier than normal. I mean, I feel like

Mayor, Heather Graham 6:20

we know what the projections are, yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:21

Yeah, 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 Graham 6:56

Because 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 Robinson 7:11

where can we save?

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:12

Where 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 Robinson 7:22

Sure.

Why Start Budget Talks Early

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:23

So 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. We do not have the revenue uh to bridge the the deficit in twenty-seven.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:45

Sure. 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.

Part-Time Cuts vs Full-Time Jobs

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:57

Sure. 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 so 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 Robinson 11:05

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:06

Um 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 Robinson 11:45

So we have like supervisors and those are full-time positions.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:48

But what does that look like if we are asked to reduce?

Haley Sue Robinson 11:51

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:52

Because in 2027, the city will not have a choice.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:55

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:56

Because 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 Robinson 12:10

It's complex.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:11

Um 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 Robinson 12:35

Yeah, 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 Graham 12:47

So 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 Robinson 13:10

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:10

Um so they can see what what part-time staff. I presented this to city council a year ago.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:15

Yeah. Last June, I think you um did the full presentation.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:19

This 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.

Pools, Parks, And Service Levels

Haley Sue Robinson 13:30

Sure. 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 and 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 Graham 13:59

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:59

Um and so you talked about what the unions have uh uh agreed to. Um what does that look like moving forward?

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:07

So 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 Robinson 14:16

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:17

Um 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 Robinson 14:28

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:29

They 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 Robinson 14:48

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:48

Uh 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 Robinson 15:02

And 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 Graham 15:20

No.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:20

Uh 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 Graham 15:47

Right.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:48

Okay. Um

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:51

There'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 Robinson 16:03

Buy those buildings,

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:04

buy this building for the staff. Um and I've made it very clear to city council, to the public.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:11

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:12

Um those two specific projects are capital improvement projects within the city.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:17

Yes.

Tough Choices And Timeline For Reductions

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:18

They are not being paid for by the general fund.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:21

So those don't affect the the deficit of

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:24

the general deficit

Haley Sue Robinson 16:25

general fund that we have right now.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:26

Then 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 Robinson 17:02

So 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 Graham 17:14

It is.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:15

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:15

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:16

I think that's a good clarification.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:18

You 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 Robinson 17:32

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:33

Every 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 Robinson 17:44

Sure. 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.

Capital Projects Clarified

Mayor, Heather Graham 18:00

Yeah, 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 to 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 Robinson 18:45

Right.

Mayor, Heather Graham 18:46

The 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 Robinson 18:52

It'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 Graham 19:06

twenty years.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:06

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:07

Yeah. So now you're now you're seeing that uh general fund future appropriations line not what it was, right?

Haley Sue Robinson 19:14

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:15

And 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 Robinson 20:01

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 20:01

Um and w once you decide to retire in May, that's how quickly it will be. Um

Haley Sue Robinson 20:08

March to May.

Revenue Limits And Police Staffing Catch-22

Mayor, Heather Graham 20:08

Yep, 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 2026. 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 Robinson 20:37

Sure. 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 Graham 20:54

So 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 Robinson 21:13

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 21:13

And 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 Robinson 21:35

Yeah. Uh especially when to your point earlier, we're a service driven uh organization. So, you know, transportation, paving roads,

Mayor, Heather Graham 21:46

paving, engineers, um, attorneys, finance,

Haley Sue Robinson 21:51

housing, 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 Graham 22:14

I don't think so.

Haley Sue Robinson 22:15

Okay. I think I think that was a good remote.

Mayor, Heather Graham 22:18

Yeah, 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 Robinson 22:38

Sure. 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 Graham 22:50

I don't want to talk about that. It's trash.

Voluntary Separation Program

Haley Sue Robinson 22:52

We 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 the bills that the city is following and what that looks like up at the state capitol.

Brian McCain 23:05

Yeah, 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 Robinson 23:40

Okay.

Brian McCain 23:40

Um this, if you go on the state legislative website, this is the most heated bill right now.

Haley Sue Robinson 23:47

Right.

Brian McCain 23:47

And 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 Robinson 23:59

Before 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 Graham 24:26

statewide concern.

Haley Sue Robinson 24:28

Well, or or even local concern, I I would say in Pueblo as far as uh prosecution of criminal activity specific to prostitution.

Brian McCain 24:37

Yes.

Haley Sue Robinson 24:37

I 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.

Right-Sizing Workforce Numbers

Brian McCain 24:47

Yeah, 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 specific example would be um the needle exchanges. So that was aimed a statewide concern.

Haley Sue Robinson 25:05

Okay.

Brian McCain 25:05

And 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 Robinson 26:11

Okay,

Brian McCain 26:12

They 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 Robinson 26:23

Okay.

Brian McCain 26:23

So 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 Robinson 26:38

Aurora's been standing one up.

Brian McCain 26:39

I think Aurora has one. Um Denver has the drones as first responders, similar to Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson 26:44

Yep.

Parks Aren’t Closing Clarified

Brian McCain 26:44

Um, this will basically make it nearly impossible to do the job, which our real-time crime center, there's one 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 Robinson 27:29

Yes,

Shift To State Legislative Update

Brian McCain 27:30

like this one specifically that would um impact our Pura, Urban Renewal Authority. I think they introduced it either Thursday or Friday 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 Graham 28:28

it's changes the time frame, right?

Brian McCain 28:30

It changes the timeframe.

Haley Sue Robinson 28:31

Yeah, from 25 to 15. Yeah, yeah.

Prostitution Decriminalization Bill

Brian McCain 28:33

Yeah. Um, I think that one they may have amended out, but there's still other ones on it that it creates uncertainty, what 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 Robinson 29:35

Okay.

Brian McCain 29:35

For 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 Robinson 29:42

for specific municipalities

Brian McCain 29:45

for 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 Robinson 29:56

Sure.

Brian McCain 29:57

But 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 Robinson 30:06

to find out how it affects us locally. So got it.

Brian McCain 30:11

Last 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 Robinson 30:31

So it wouldn't happen in the middle of the night. Folks would actually hear this.

Crime Center Bills And Public Safety Tools

Brian McCain 30:35

They would schedule it, yeah. You would have a spot, you wouldn't have to go stand in line for what, what do we 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 Robinson 31:04

okay.

Brian McCain 31:04

That'll be a good one. Um currently we're tracking about 67 bills that will impact Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson 31:10

Wow.

Brian McCain 31:11

Unfortunately, I would say 60 of those are negative.

Haley Sue Robinson 31:14

Okay.

Brian McCain 31:15

Um 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 Graham 31:41

I wish they would take a year off or five.

Haley Sue Robinson 31:45

The legislature?

Mayor, Heather Graham 31:46

Yeah.

Brian McCain 31:47

Well, 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 Robinson 32:02

Yeah,

Brian McCain 32:03

We get hit with like 700 pieces of legislation.

Haley Sue Robinson 32:06

He 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 McCain 32:18

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 32:18

Um and it's full speed ahead for the remaining 69 days.

Brian McCain 32:23

The 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 Robinson 32:40

Sure.

Brian McCain 32:41

And 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 Robinson 33:02

Which isn't an option. I I mean

Urban Renewal And TIF Under Threat

Brian McCain 33:04

The the latest on that is they may amend it um to only include ridership of over 10 million, which would 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 Robinson 33:24

Cool.

Brian McCain 33:25

And we'll get that up here in the next day or so.

Haley Sue Robinson 33:27

That sounds great. Okay.

Brian McCain 33:29

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 33:30

You like getting people riled up.

Mayor, Heather Graham 33:32

Okay. Sure.

Brian McCain 33:35

I 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 Robinson 33:57

Well, 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 McCain 34:26

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 34:26

Great. Okay. Thanks, Brian. I appreciate it. Uh Mayor, anything else that you want to add?

Mayor, Heather Graham 34:32

No

Haley Sue Robinson 34:33

Okay. 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.