The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 58

Episode 58 of the Mayor's Mixtape provides an overview of the successful Team Up to Clean Up event at the Colorado State Fairgrounds, and RecycleWorks. Chief of Staff McCain gives a legislative update and Mayor Graham gives an overview of the City Council Work Session from Monday, May 4. 

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Transcript

Welcome And How To Reach Us

Haley Sue Robinson 0:07

Welcome to the fifty-eighth 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 want to remind you, you can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Buzz sprout, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on local channel 17, and there are lots of opportunities to download, share, subscribe, like, leave a review. And don't forget, if you have questions, you can email us, mayor @pueblo.us, or if you have a topic suggestion, we'd love to hear it.

TeamUp To Cleanup Results

Haley Sue Robinson 0:42

Let's talk about the cleanup this weekend. We had a very successful cleanup. Brian gave an update last night at the work session. We had 97 roll-offs total with an estimated 180 tons of trash. Um, 38 tons from CSU Pueblo and 142 tons from the Colorado State Fair. Um, I know we had 832 carloads come through the Colorado State Fairgrounds. Um, you and I were out at the state fairgrounds. Brian, you were up at CSU Pueblo. Um we also had Councilor Hernandez who helped us at the state fairgrounds, Councilor um Ruiz -Gomez, um, and Councilor uh Latino was up at um CSU Pueblo.

Spring Discount Days At Landfill

Haley Sue Robinson 1:30

Um in addition to TeamUp to Cleanup, if you missed this weekend, you weren't able to join us, you couldn't dump our trash, um we do have uh discount days with waste connections from May 4th through May 16th for spring cleanup. This is a 50% discount for City of Pueblo residents to use the Southside Landfill. Um so you can bring solid waste, trash, yard trimmings, mattresses, box springs. Um please cover your loads and make sure that they're secure in order to receive the discount. If your trash is blowing everywhere, you will not receive the discount. Um waste connection, southside landfill hours are Monday through Friday from 7 to 5 and Saturdays 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. No appliances, electronics, liquids, paint, tires, hazardous waste, construction, demolition, or roofing materials. Um none of that is offered with this uh offering for discount days. So if you miss dumping your trash, you can still dump

Council Legislative Update And Bill Concerns

Haley Sue Robinson 2:35

your trash. Last night we had seven different presentations on the council work session. So one of the things to start was the legislative update. Um Brian, is there anything that you want to share about that?

Brian McCain 2:48

Yeah, I think the the bill that the Romero's brought up was the Senate Bill 26-176 State Remedies for Constitutional Rights Violations, also known as the No Kings Act. Um as they gave the presentation, there are some concerns with it that it opens up litigation for basically anything. Anything anybody can claim that their constitutional rights were violated. So they gave the example that you show up to council, you have five minutes to speak, and then when if council cuts you off at five minutes, you can say that your freedom of speech was violated and it opens a lawsuit up to sue council or the city for it. I ironically, as they were given that presentation asking for counsel to take a position on it, um it died. So it was PI'd or postponed indefinitely in committee, I think five minutes after they gave their presentation. So it will be back next year along with some of these other bills. The other one was the Senate bill, I think I talked about it last week, the 70, which was the Flock bill. Um that did not pass either. But all of these bills that we took, opposition as a city against, um, they have said that they will be back next year. So we have some No, they're just temporarily dead. Okay. They'll be back next year, and we'll be monitoring that too.

Police Video Response And Public Frustration

Haley Sue Robinson 4:06

Okay. Um speaking of legislation, uh, so last week uh Chief Noeller put out a video. Um we had a lot of social media shares, um, and a lot of folks on social media um reaching out talking about the Steel City Deli incident. Um, and so Chief Noeller um put together a video to address the public about that. I thought maybe you'd want to speak about that a little bit, Mayor, and um why that w in particular was important to us.

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:39

Yeah, so um the video that was put out by the deli um ended up s getting its way, you know, back to us because as the chief said the first time around that wasn't presented.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:57

Yeah, we didn't know there was any video.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:00

Yeah. And um the offender obviously has some issues um and Chief Noeller spoke to those issues um and how it's really handcuffing the police department when they are trying to arrest or uh detain individuals, um put people in jail, um, and ultimately making sure that these individuals are charged with their crimes. And so um we thought it was important for the chief to be able to tie that back to legislation that has been passed and how it affects um the community and the citizens of Pueblo because I don't think that people realize um, you know, the chief said people are saying what you know, why won't the police do anything? Um and so I thought it was a good explanation of why the police can't do anything. Um and I think that that's important to make sure that we continue to tell that story uh when it comes to legislation that's affecting our community.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:04

Well, and I think he also pointed out, you know, so the the complaint is the police don't do anything or why don't they do anything. And while the outcome basically is that nothing happens, they still do something, right? So they still issue citations, they still take reports, they still arrest folks, they still attempt to take folks to jail, whether they remain um in jail or not. Um but for the general public, it feels like nothing is happening. Um and so I I felt like that was a really good explanation. Um, you know, he outlined that we have 41 folks in Pueblo um that have committed crimes that we feel every day. Um and so we're not trying to gaslight the public and say, oh, crime's down, this stuff is not happening, it's just uh your imagination. It is happening. Um unfortunately, uh those folks are

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:04

they'll never pay a consequence.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:05

Yeah, are able to continue their behavior. Um and so we share the frustration. It wasn't just like uh

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:13

Somewhere, somehow a judge found them incompetent to be able to stand trial um or be charged and face any consequence.

Mental Health Beds And Funding Cuts

Haley Sue Robinson 7:24

Yeah, and then that that brings up the issue of uh mental health availability and and treatment options and what we're able to do for these folks to help them get the help that they need.

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:36

The chief also talked about, you know, Health Solutions currently has 15 beds in their ATU. Um Detox, I don't know how many beds detox even has, um, but they're both going to be losing their funding. Um and the ATU and Detox are gonna be uh closing June fifteenth, I think the chief said. So um we're about to see some serious impacts in the city of uh people in Denver.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:05

And uh similar to what we've seen previously with uh the state hospital and closing those units and uh the chemical dependency unit with uh UC Health. Um yeah, it's kind of just stacking against us at this point.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:22

Yeah.

CDBG And Stormwater Plans Moving Forward

Haley Sue Robinson 8:23

Okay, um well shifting back to council last night, we also had a presentation from Director of Housing and Citizen Services, Melissa Cook, about C D B G. Um We also had a presentation from Stormwater um about the study they've conducted, specifically Colorado State Fairgrounds and the Bessemer neighborhood. We had some good questions about um what that looks like moving forward. Sounds like we're gonna have some

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:50

Yeah, we're gonna see construction starting.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:53

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:53

So that's that's exciting.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:55

Yeah. Um and you know, I I think some of counsel mentioned it feels like we've talked about this for a long time. I think that's a fair statement we have, but um, we're gonna see some progress and some construction and upsizing um and get some relief and and work done for the community.

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:12

Yeah, we started this study well a year uh probably about a year ago. Um so in government time it's actually kind of quick.

Haley Sue Robinson 9:20

It is. It is, yeah. Um and then we'll have some public outreach and some feedback. So we'll have some town halls that we'll be um updating folks about and announcing soon.

Advanced Pueblo As A City Concierge

Haley Sue Robinson 9:33

Um also, Mayor, you presented about advanced pueblo. Um seems like we talk about that pretty often, but was there anything in particular you wanted to share?

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:43

It's just more of I just wanted to enlighten the the council for those who who aren't to work, some don't sit on the committee. Sure. Um, or the citizens that the city is still continuing to do what we can um when it comes to the application process and uh people connecting, uh prospects, citizens, anybody with questions, um being able to have uh an outlet, um somebody that they can c contact and get additional information from. And I think that that was really what the presentation was about, um

Haley Sue Robinson 10:21

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:21

Is is how we have continued uh moving forward um since January 1st.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:27

And I think um Councilor Danti asked a really important question as far as so maybe I am not a new business prospect or I'm not a developer. Um I just have some questions and I'm not really sure what to do, who to talk to, where's the right group, is it even the city? Can I use advanced pueblo?

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:49

Absolutely. Yeah. And that's what we told her. We get all kinds of questions and uh where we have to point people in other directions all the time. Maybe they're sure businesses in the county, or maybe they are looking for uh a tax exempt license or a regular business license, and where do you do that? How do you who do you talk to?

Haley Sue Robinson 11:08

Yeah,

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:08

How do you start your routing sheet? Um and so we're trying to kind of be the concierge for all of those questions.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:15

And to be fair, I mean, those are things that we've done in the mayor's office for years.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:20

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:20

Prior to Advanced Pueblo ever being um a city entity. I know um uh our folks here in the mayor's office, the city clerk's office, um, planning public works, our admin staff, they answer those questions all the time. We have folks that ask us questions that we say, oh, you need to speak to somebody at the county, or actually this is um something at the state level. Do you need a contact? Um That's kind of our everyday job anyway.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:49

It is . Yeah, we just give it a name now.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:51

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, so I thought that was an important question.

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:55

I do too.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:56

Great. Um anything else you want to update us there or um talk about in particular.

Grant Push For Shelter Infrastructure

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:03

We're going to Canyon City for round three of a dola grant. That's exciting. City's been successful in the two previous grants for the real-time crime center and the boat house. Um so this time we're applying for the grant for infrastructure for the homeless shelter.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:23

Um for that that next phase that's

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:26

the next phase, yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:27

In that um kind of in-between area between the the permanent residence shelter at um 728 um and between 710 that we have that parking lot.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:40

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:40

The asphalt area. Um so that would be a grant for that area. Yeah, and the next phase.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:47

Super competitive this this this is probably gonna be the most competitive um grant cycle that they've had just because a lot of their funding um is also getting cut and they have twice as many applications in as they do for funding. So um there's this grant encompasses lots of different water quality, um, etc. So we'll see how we do.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:12

It's a little bit broader than

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:13

it is

Haley Sue Robinson 13:13

normal.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:14

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:15

It seems like that's kind of the grant world right now is that uh regardless of who you're applying with, they're seeing more applications and it's much more competitive and we're all vying for the

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:26

same money.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:27

Yep, the dollars that are available.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:29

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:30

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:31

So that's tomorrow. So hopefully we don't get snowed in and in the city.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:36

Right. Absolutely.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:37

We'll have to zoom it.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:38

Okay. I'd prefer not to zoom it.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:41

Yeah, me too.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:42

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:42

It's more impactful when you're there in person.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:44

It is. Absolutely. Okay. Uh anything else I'm missing that we need to talk about? No. Okay, great. Short and sweet, to the point.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:55

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:55

Okay, thanks, Mayor. Thanks, Brian. I appreciate

Reminders And Next Steps

Haley Sue Robinson 13:58

it. Um I'd like to remind the listener, you can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcasts. Um, thank you again for joining us on Saturday at TeamUp to Cleanup. Don't forget about discount days with uh waste connections. And if you are looking for updates, you can check us out online, uh, Facebook, Instagram, um, all of the city's social media. And if you have a topic suggestion or question, you can email us, mayor @pueblo.us. And we'll see you next week.