The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 56

Episode 56 of the Mayor's Mixtape is here. This episode gives a short legislative update with SB26-159, a brief recap of the previous City Council meeting and insight from the City Council Work Session on Monday, April 22. How does the City approach economic development and working with incentives for new businesses? Find out the process from Mayor Graham. 

 Don't forget to email your topic suggestions or questions to mayor@pueblo.us. 

Transcript

Welcome And Council Recap

Haley Sue Robinson 0:06

Welcome to the 56th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs for the City of Pueblo.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:13

I'm Heather Graham, City of Pueblo Mayor.

Brian McCain 0:15

Brian McCain, Chief of Staff.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:17

And I'd like to remind you to find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on uh local channel 17. And don't forget, if you have questions or topic suggestions, you can email us mayor @pueblo.us. Uh Mayor, we missed you last week. We took a week off of the podcast. Um, but we did have a pretty big agenda uh last week at City Council. Um we came to an agreement with the Goodnight Barn. Um there were also funds allocated for the Employee Health Clinic, and um we also approved the IGA for CSAC with Pueblo County. Um and so this coming meeting on April 27th, we'll see the agreements for the nonprofits with CSAC that will come

Employee Health Clinic Timeline

Haley Sue Robinson 1:09

forward. Um but talking about the employee health clinic, what does that look like as we continue to move forward?

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:16

I think we're gonna have an opening date, um, June, July time frame.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:21

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:21

So we're getting pretty close.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:23

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:24

Uh with the remodel and um

Haley Sue Robinson 1:26

Great.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:27

Bringing a clinic in.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:28

Okay. Awesome. So looking forward to that for our employees and their families and um additional healthcare in Pueblo. So that'll be great. Okay. Good. Um, we also had 26 ordinances approved on first reading last week. So uh this coming Monday will be pretty long meeting. Um I think maybe we'll need a coffee Monday afternoon. Yeah. Or two. Yeah. Uh I do I, you know, we start earlier at 5 30, but I 26 ordinances is a lot.

Mayor, Heather Graham 2:02

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:02

I feel like when we get over like 15, it's a lot. So

Mayor, Heather Graham 2:06

It'll be a long night. Lots of questions, I'm sure.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:10

Lots, lots on the agenda. Um, and a little bit from everybody from all the departments, uh, essentially. So um last night we had quite a few presentations for the work session, uh, including ADA commission presentation from Southern Colorado Economic Development District, or SCED, um, and ask for a new youth art documentary project and a legislative update and also a presentation for a new business in Pueblo.

Economic Development Vetting Process

Haley Sue Robinson 2:42

Um, I did want to talk a little bit about um the process for economic development now. I I know we had uh Andrew Hayes on a couple weeks ago on the podcast, but um last night there was a lot of discussion about the process of how that works. Councilor Boston kind of outlined that for us, but can you touch on a little bit of what that looks like?

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:06

Yeah, so typically what's been happening since January 1st is the city has been accepting and corresponding with all economic development projects um coming into the community, right? So there's an application process, there's a vetting process, um, so that we're not wasting anybody's time.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:27

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:27

Um we want to know if these are viable projects in our community. Um so we ask for financial statements, a business plan, um, really an outline of what this prospect is asking for, how it's gonna impact the city, what kind of incentives they're looking for. So we start with that, uh review their application internally. We have a committee that commit that uh consists of city employees, finance, um, law, public works, myself, and two city council members. And we review the applications and say, you know, whether we need more information, whether that this is something that we want to uh bring forward or not. Is it a good fit for our community? And so last night that process was completely bypassed.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:18

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:19

Um I think that's what Councilor Boston was talking about. Sure. Um, which is kind of unfair, right? Because you have prospects who are supposed to follow the application process when coming into the city instead of just popping on the work session agenda. So um for the prospect or the company that came last night to present, um, there's still a lot of um unanswered um questions. So they did submit uh somewhat of an application last Thursday. We have not reviewed um internally, there was no financial documents uh provided. Um so the company uh has not been vetted uh before it came to city council last night. Um and that's really a process that we want to stick to as the administration and staff uh to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row before we bring something publicly to the community saying this is a business that we're looking at um potentially incentivizing. Um it'd be a different story if the business was coming and not asking for $15 million in cash incentives. Um that's just not typical how this works. It can't, right? I mean, the City of Pueblo is not a bank. Um and even a bank would ask these types of financial questions, uh, vetting of the company, uh, longevity of the company before they would think about loaning or um doing any kind of incentive package. So that's really the pathway that we've we've we've done with every other project we brought to city council um is the city is now vetting prospects, bring it to council, um city council approves, they go on the um agenda uh via ordinance for incentive packages. So that was not typical um last night, what we saw.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:22

So then um once an application is put in with the city, then the committee meets. Would there then be like an executive session to brief the rest of council before the ordinance or what all does that look like?

Mayor, Heather Graham 6:38

Yeah. So after the the committee meets, if the committee is satisfied with financial uh documents, performance, all the information, then we compile it and we take it to city council for an exec session and get um direction from all city council um at once.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:56

Okay, so um even though not all of council is on the review committee, they still have the opportunity to see um the application or or the proposal before it is on the agenda.

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:10

Right.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:10

Okay. I mean they can ask questions.

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:12

You've heard me talk several times when we've talked about bad incentive deals or um projects have that have gone by the wayside, right, where the city is on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. Um we have no way to collateralize um buildings or property or personal property, um, and the city is kind of you know left um with nothing. And so we want to make sure that we're not doing that. We want to have due diligence period uh for the taxpayers. And so that that didn't happen um with this particular prospect that came in front of city council via work session. And I understand um their time frame and them you know needing to make a a decision as um the individual had stated last night. Um, but this is the government. Um and there is a process that we follow um for accuracy and to make sure that these projects are well vetted um before they come in front of city council.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:16

Okay. So um we'll see the rest of that that process kind of begin.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:21

So they've submitted, um, and now we will, you know, meet, get financial information, get any other documents that's typically uh being requested and see where that goes. So um that's that's the process. Um we're trying to make it the same process for everybody.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:38

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:39

Um trying to make it fair. So that's that's kind of what we like to see.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:42

Got it. Okay. Great. Thanks for outlining that for us. Um okay.

Opposing Sentence Reduction Bill

Haley Sue Robinson 8:48

Also, you know, Mayor, there there hasn't been a lot of um legislative updates. However, last week uh you made a post on on Facebook um about Senate Bill 26159, uh, which reduces time served for offenders. Um one thing you mentioned in particular was in 2024 um Prop 128 was approved by 62% of the voters, which requires violent offenders to serve at least 85% of their sentence. Um, and that this Senate bill is in opposition of that. So um it's it seems a bit obvious, but please tell me why this is important uh to oppose locally and and how this would affect us.

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:31

Well, I mean, these are these are the same offenders that we talk about that continue to commit crime in our community every single day, right? So violent offenders who are only doing eighty-five percent of their time now, right, do the crime, do the time, except in Colorado.

Haley Sue Robinson 9:48

Oh, okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:49

Mm-hmm. And um so now they just want to let criminals out on the street um without doing at least eighty-five percent. I mean, it's bonkers. I mean, our community is consistently um talking about crime and you know, people who are out on jail and out on bonds, um, re-offending, nothing ever happens to them, there's no consequence, no punishment. Um, this is just another slap in the face by the state uh for the community of Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:27

And you outlined a few things that um so Prop 128 requires that they serve 85% of the time, but um it it looks like this Senate bill would reduce it to potentially like fifty percent of the time.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:39

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:40

Um and why is this being proposed?

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:44

I don't know.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:45

Okay,

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:46

that's a fantastic question.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:48

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:48

We could ask our legislators because I believe that it's legislators that represent Pueblo who are sure proposing um sponsoring this bill. Um so I I'm not sure what they're thinking is. I guess they're not hearing the cries of the Pueblo community when it comes to um violence and repeat offending and um I just don't know how much more our community and police department can take. Yesterday we had a officer resign um who's gonna go work in a state where he can be a cop. Um because he's gonna feel like he can do what he wants to do uh in our community. And I think you're gonna see more and more um of that if these bills continue to be dropped at the state level without having any communication to the city um or to the community about um lowering uh offenses, lowering bonds, low I mean, it's it's insanity.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:54

Yeah, the stakeholdering process, especially with this one, um I know you cited that it you know it it skips um uh you know, our judges, it skips the police department. Right. Um so it's uh it's kind of interesting that that's how it uh that was proposed.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:14

Yeah, it's bullshit.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:16

Okay. All right. Um any other pieces of legislation that we're currently

Database Bill And Veterans Fund

Haley Sue Robinson 12:23

following?

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:23

Oh, Brian has something for us.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:26

Go ahead, Brian.

Brian McCain 12:28

So one of the bills the council in the city is uh opposed to is the Senate Bill 26 26 -70, the ban government access historical location information database.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:39

Say that seven times fast. Not even three. How about seven?

Brian McCain 12:43

Um it's the last update we gave on it, it was an appropriations and they didn't have money for it.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:49

Okay.

Brian McCain 12:49

So as we speak

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:50

Did they find money?

Brian McCain 12:52

As we speak right now, in appropriations hearing, and one of the um representatives or senators that were opposed to it has now flipped. I'm not watching it. I'm gonna log on right after this and see what happens. But his argument was that they didn't have the money for it. There was nothing in appropriations, but somehow they've managed to cut some of the cost out of it. And I don't know how they do that with this bill, but it's in a hearing right now, and if it gets through this, then it'll go to the floor.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:22

Interesting. Okay.

Brian McCain 13:23

So I will watch that after we're done here.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:26

Okay. So we'll have uh an update coming on that one.

Brian McCain 13:29

Yes.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:30

Okay, great. Uh anything uh else legislatively we need to be uh tuned into?

Brian McCain 13:38

Uh uh I do have in case people have questions that watch last night, the Veterans Trust Fund was brought up. And what that was is it's uh a fund from tobacco sales that goes to veterans through grants and it could be through the VFW or the county or wherever that assists with uh you know emergency rent assistance, emergency assistance, but it's also kind of being looked at to build a one source shop for Pueblo that the state the VA wants to come in and do something similar to what they did on the West Slope. Well, the rumor was that they were gonna grab that money out of it and nobody was really paying attention to it. So our lobbyists actually reached out to the um appropriations of the JBC on that. And they did take a little bit out, but it's still there. They took $75,000 out of four million. So what that means is the JBC says you have to spend this money in the upcoming year or it's at risk of being pulled back. And that fund helps a lot of veterans in Pueblo that are just struggling, helps them get off their feet, um, assist their families, and it's important that they keep that and use it as it's intended to be used and not just claw that money back to the state.

Haley Sue Robinson 14:43

Got it. Okay. Great. Thank you for those updates. Okay. Um anything else about the work session or uh city council updates that you want to talk about, Mayor?

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:58

No?

Haley Sue Robinson 14:58

No? Okay.

Boathouse Opening And Cleanup Day

Haley Sue Robinson 15:00

Um we do have a lot of um upcoming events. It's a big week for the city. The boathouse is finally gonna open um Thursday, April 23rd at three o'clock.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:12

Yeah. Finally.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:14

You're excited?

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:15

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:15

I know uh President Aliff is also excited. There's a lot of folks that are um very happy about this. So um I did see a little sneak peek last week. Uh I took a ride in the elevator, which is the whole reason we've been waiting. And you know me, I'm not an elevator person, so that was actually kind of a big deal. Um I like the stairs. It feels safer. Um, but we have that on Thursday, so we hope that the community will come out and celebrate that. Um also one of our favorite days of the year.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:49

Trash cleanup.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:50

Trash cleanup. Team Up To Cleanup uh Saturday, May 3rd. Um, we have three locations, Colorado State Fairgrounds.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:58

Also, is it the Great American Cleanup Day? Yeah, yeah. I saw that last night on the agenda that was I was like, what a day to have trash in the Pueblo community. All over.

Brian McCain 16:12

I thought that's why you guys put it on there.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:14

No, I didn't even know.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:16

No, we picked I think we picked this day like back in January, and it's because both uh CSU-Pueblo and Colorado State Fairgrounds were open. And then I saw um Susan Finsel from uh Fountain Creek Watershed District, and she was like, Oh, it's great American Cleanup Day. Um so if you're not gonna volunteer with us at the city, we hope you'll volunteer with them. Uh there's lots of opportunities to clean up, uh, whether you're cleaning up your household trash or your tires or your yard waste or you're gonna help uh Fountain Creek Watershed District. We want you to pick up Pueblo. That's the message, right?

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:52

Pick up Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:52

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:53

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:54

Um so our cleanup is from eight to three, three locations, Colorado State Fairgrounds, CSU Pueblo, and then RecycleWorks. You can bring your household trash and your large items or your tires must be off the rim uh to CSU Pueblo or to the state fairgrounds, and then bring your yard waste, which is like tree branches or leaves, um, unbagged to recycle works. So it should be great.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:23

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:23

We're very excited. We love cleanup day.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:26

Haven't missed one.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:28

No. I missed one. It's okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:32

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:33

I've only missed one in like four and a half years. So

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:35

that's crazy.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:36

Yeah. Okay. Well, um, and if you want to see more information or you're interested in volunteering, please uh take a look on the city's website, pueblo.us, or uh Facebook, Instagram, next door, um, follow us online for more updates there. And just bring your um ID or proof of residence within city limits, and you can dump all your stuff for free. So very happy about that. Anything else I'm missing, Mayor?

Mayor, Heather Graham 18:05

No.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:06

Okay, great. Uh I want to remind the listener that you can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcasts, and you can email us questions or topic suggestions, mayor @pueblo.us. And we'll see you next week.