The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 60

Episode 60 of the Mayor's Mixtape includes an update from Chief of Staff Brian McCain about the conclusion of the state legislative session. Mayor Graham also follows up about the Work Session presentation regarding finance terms given at the Monday, May 18 Work Session. 

 Don't forget the upcoming town halls the end of May and beginning of June for the budget with Mayor Graham. Get your questions answered and learn more about 2027 budget proposals. Thanks for listening. 

Transcript

Welcome And How To Listen

Haley Sue Robinson 0:07

Welcome to the 60th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs for the City of Pueblo.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:14

I'm Heather Graham, City of Pueblo Mayor.

Brian McCain 0:16

And I'm Brian McCain, Chief of Staff.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:18

And we're in a new spot, Mayor.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:20

We are. It's weird.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:22

And we got a new sign. Mayor's Mixtape. So want to remind the listener, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, Buzz Sprout, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. Please like, subscribe, share, and thank you for listening. You can also catch us on local channel 17. And if you have questions or topic suggestions, you can email us mayor @pueblo.us.

Colorado Legislative Wrap-Up For Pueblo

Haley Sue Robinson 0:45

Last night we had a city council work session and we had a couple of presentations. One in particular was the legislative wrap-up. Brian, I thought maybe you could give us a little bit of summary. We heard from Capital Success Group, our lobbyist team last night. And you know, normally it's maybe like a five to ten minute presentation was a little longer because uh legislative session ended, but thought you could give us some information.

Brian McCain 1:15

Absolutely. So um the city and city council took position on one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bills this last um session. And honestly, out of the seven, we were successful on six.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:28

Okay.

Brian McCain 1:29

The the what what our position was. So I'll just go through those. So the first one was HB 2626-1071, and that was local government vehicle ID systems on interstate highways. What this would do would allow speed cameras basically on the interstate. So right now you can do that, but there's tons of you know, permitting hoops to jump through to get it, and this would have made it easier. That one we supported, and unfortunately that one was killed. So that one was the one we were not successful on. Then we had Senate Bill 26129, which was mitigate impacts of tax increment fund financing. So this was the PURA bill or our Urban Renewal Authority bill. What this really would have done was make it more confusing at different levels reporting to urban renewal authorities. I think every municipality across the state was opposed to that, and we were too. So that one was killed that.

Mayor, Heather Graham 2:26

And that was gonna change the years.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:28

Yeah, from 25 to 15, yeah, right?

Brian McCain 2:31

There there was that, and there was uh reporting requirement and um something with the amount of time to report something that just wouldn't be possible to do inefficient. So luckily that one um did not pass. The other one, Senate Bill 26-70, was ban government access to historical location information database. This would have prohibited the government agencies agencies for uh accessing databases of historical vehicle or individual data. This is the FLOC bill that we heard about. Um the city was opposed to that, and that one did not pass it either. So that almost got there, and at the last minute it was killed. So that was a success. HB 26-1037, that's banned government purchase of personal data from a third party. This would prohibit law enforcement and government entities from purchasing consumer data. So you you hear that and you think, oh, you want to go out and buy somebody's data that they have off of Facebook. Well, this is you know, Lexus Lexus Nexus, things like that that we use, that our legal department uses, that district attorneys use, that police use. Um we were opposed to that, and that one was postponed indefinitely, so thus dead did not go forward. Another one was HB 26-1313, adjust requirements to statewide affordable housing fund, or the Prop 123. Um obviously we supported that, and Pueblo played a big role in this. So over the summer, even before the session, uh Melissa Cook, that works for the city, her and I, and a few other people, we went through stakeholdering process, as they like to use, but really what it was was the Prop 123 formula when the voters passed it. Um with Pueblo, it didn't really fit.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:21

Yeah

Brian McCain 4:21

and it would prohibit us from accessing those funds. So obviously, we supported that. We worked with the legislators on this every week. We had a meeting on it for our input, and it impacted mostly Pueblo and another community. I think it was Greeley up north or the two big one. So that one did pass. We're waiting for the governor to sign that, so he's expected to sign it in the next day or so, hopefully. But it's non-controversial. It was passed something that's a good thing and it doesn't quite work. How do we fix it so it works for everybody? Um Senate Bill 26-71, the use of surveillance technology by law enforcement. This was the SAFE Act. This uh establishes statewide rules for law enforcement use of all surveillance technology, requires warrants for facial recognition, restricts license plate reader data, retention and sharing, and mandates agency-wide compliance policies. So, this again, a lot of these tie into our real-time crime center, and these bills would have been a roadblock or basically defeated the purpose of our real-time crime center. So we were opposed to this. Um, that was another one that was postponed indefinitely thus dead or killed. So that was a win for us. Um and then one that we didn't take an official position on, but Councilor Danti was really interested in it, and some of our uh city employees as well as is HB 26-1202 strategy to reduce and prevent homelessness. So this requires DOLA to develop a statewide homeless prevention and uh resolution strategy and allows local governments to create jurisdictional homelessness authorities and permits real estate documentary fees to fund affordable housing. Uh again, we didn't take a position, but I think most of the council and everybody agreed that this was a good thing. Um, that was passed and it's waiting signature uh from the governor. And what that'll do, it just I know you hear that, oh, it's another study of a study of a study, how do we fix this? But realistically, there hasn't been a statewide study on homelessness and some of the uh policies or ideas to uh deal with homelessness non housed in our communities. So this will allow for DOLA to do that and work with the communities and you know maybe pass some things on a local level that can impact uh homelessness and the non-ho unhoused and help them out. So those were the seven. So overall, you know, six for seven and what we wanted to see happen, so we it was successful. There was a lot of talk about the budget and how they went into three major budget cuts, and it ended up being I think two point two point eight billion that the state ended up cutting. Um, and this impacts everything. You're gonna hear a lot about mental health and some of the funding for that. Medicaid going into the summer is gonna be a big topic, so there are cuts to Medicaid mostly on the caps, but that ties into the federal funding as long as as well as the state funding on that. So even though the session is over, they still have a lot of work to do this

Budget Cuts And Medicaid Concerns

Brian McCain 7:26

summer to figure out what to do with that.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:27

Sure.

Brian McCain 7:28

That's it.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:29

Okay. Pretty good. Thanks for breaking it down into like layman's terms instead of just uh all the numbers and us not really knowing what what that is. So it's helpful when we localize it and we understand what it means for Pueblo.

Making Bills Understandable In Plain English

Brian McCain 7:46

I think it's intentional sometimes that they make a bill hard to read and understand. And nobody will say how does this impact you. So the best way I think to deal with this, whether it's with the council or the public, is to break it down and say, okay, it says this, this is what it really means, and this is how it's gonna affect you or impact you, like the real-time crime center bills. You read that, you don't understand what it says. But if you go up to somebody like our city council and say this will basically gut our real-time crime center, and we've been very successful with our real-time crime center so much that other cities such as Denver, uh, I think Douglas County, Castle Rock, those areas are building their own, and they've actually got a lot of people.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:28

And Colorado Springs.

Brian McCain 8:29

Yeah, and they've looked at ours. Like we're the model for this. And with crime as it is, this has really been impactful for Pueblo. So these bills, yes, you say this will take away our ability to fight crime, basically, in the city of Pueblo, and of course they're going to be opposed to

Real-Time Crime Center Myths And Reality

Brian McCain 8:45

that.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:45

Well, and I think another thing that's really interesting about our real-time crime center that's kind of like a misnomer is folks think that our real-time crime technicians or our dispatchers or police are just sitting and watching cameras all day long waiting for us to do something illegal or make a mistake when really um they don't have time for that. And a lot of times how we use the the cameras, the license plate readers is for investigation or in the middle of a crime that's currently happening so that they can speak to our officers and give them the information that they need in real time during a pursuit or a traffic stop or something like that. They're not sitting there watching park cameras to see if I used my blinker or not, or if I stopped all the way at the stop sign. It's not like that. And so when you tell people how the real-time crime center actually works, it makes more sense that we need to keep it that way.

Brian McCain 9:52

Yeah, there was a really good example that um Chief Noeller brought up and our lobbyists did too, was that there was a homicide in Pueblo and the victim was completely unconnected to the person that committed the homicide. If one or two of these bills would have passed, we would not have been able to find out who the criminal was that committed this homicide because they had to go back in that data almost 30 days to figure out who this person was. I know at least one, two of these bills that we could not access that data past a certain amount of time. Um we couldn't just go look for, say, a vehicle. It would have taken weeks, if not months, to get the the proper things together to look for this. Um but again, that data would have been destroyed because it was over the time limit that they they put in their legislation. And again, they had to go back, I think, almost 30 days to find this truck and somehow connect it to this crime scene, and that's how they busted the bad guy. Um if this would have passed, we would not have been able to do that.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:58

Yeah. Great. Good summaries. Thanks, Brian.

City Budget Codes And How Projects Work

Haley Sue Robinson 11:03

Okay, um, also last night at council we had a very comprehensive presentation by our finance director, Danny Nunn. Um he broke down some finance terms, kind of just uh, I guess what I would call like a cheat sheet, maybe, for um codes, for project numbers, um, even just like the process of what it looks like to begin a project with purchasing. Um I thought that was really good information. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think one thing that was interesting for me is, you know, we have some uh more seasoned councilors who still felt like that they had learned um some last night from um from our finance director. I I guess just from my curious perspective, how hard was it to decipher or to learn all those terms and project codes for you when you first started on council? Did you ask a lot of questions or it was it pretty did it feel straightforward?

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:10

I mean, when I was on council, the administration was um not as forthcoming to city council. So we never really got in the weeds of this is a capital, this is um

Haley Sue Robinson 12:26

These are like enterprise funds.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:29

Uh, you know, this project was never complete, right? We had a lot of cleanup when I became the mayor. Um and so I think the first time that we really started, I really started diving into all that is immediately when I was elected.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:42

When you took this position.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:44

Trying to figure out how we were going to solve the budget shortfall. Um when I was on city council, none of that was ever given or talked about, or uh the budget presentations are not what they are now. There wasn't invites to budget meetings. Um I had a budget committee. Um we just reviewed non-departmental requests, uh, so it was much different. So um I'm very happy the council is engaged and that they want to learn and know. Um and I think it's important that when staff or myself is talking to them about a capital project or a wastewater improvement project um or the difference between enterprise and general funds, uh that they that they know what we're talking about. And um I think that Danny did a really good job of presenting that in a way that not only council but citizens can um have a little bit better understanding about the dynamics of the city's budget and all the bank accounts.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:45

I um I also could appreciate the fact that Councilor Danti asked for it and just said, Hey, I I need to be able to talk to folks in my district and to citizens when they ask me questions that I can tell them the difference between an enterprise fund, that WW means wastewater, that the AN means annual project. Um I think my favorite part was when Danny talked about uh the project number 58, and the way he uh remembers that is because of Von Miller. I was laughing. Uh you know, normally council is very serious, finance is a little bit dry. So I thought that was funny that uh, you know, he said he remembers outside projects or like the outside linebacker Von Miller. I was like, okay, well now I'll never forget that. Um so that was a new one. I think I I talked with our city attorney Carla Sykes about that too. She's like, yeah, I'll never, I'll never forget outside projects 58. That's our project code. Um so you know, even as staff, I think it was helpful for us. Just it was very granular, but um easy to understand. And so I think that's helpful um for folks. And uh I thought he did a great job last night.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:05

He got lots of props.

Transparency Portal And Budget Town Halls

Haley Sue Robinson 15:07

Yeah. Uh I thought another thing that was very helpful too was uh Councilor Hernandez asked for an update with um where we are in the budget, and so then uh President Aliff pointed out that we have the transparency portal. Um and I think that's something that a lot of folks don't realize. You can go on the city's website every day and look exactly where we are. Um you can look at the adopted budget for 2026, you can check out our transparency portal, you know, um asking the questions about what's being funded, you can get the answers right there. You don't even have to call us and say how much money you can look and you don't even have to believe us.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:49

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:51

So I I thought that was um that was helpful too. Was there anything else you wanted to add about finance or budget?

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:58

I don't think so. We're gonna be having our budget town hall starting next week so we can have the community come out and ask questions and give comments on how they want their money spent.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:11

Sure. And I think um I think we've seen a lot of questions about what does the budget look like this year? And I think what's interesting is we're getting folks who maybe haven't paid attention before now are asking questions, and this is a good time to see how the budget's being spent this year, and then give the feedback. What it what do we want it to look like in 2027? Um but like I said, that information is available on the on the website. You can check it out for yourselves, and um there's no hiding how the how the money's being spent.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:48

I thought it was interesting to Councilman Hernandez asked the question, you know, what if it isn't something that's in our budget house.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:56

Oh, sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:57

How does it get paid?

Haley Sue Robinson 16:58

Yeah, how does it get appropriated?

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:00

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:00

Yeah. Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:01

Take it back to council.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:03

Right. Well, and and um, you know, Danny mentioned how we've consolidated uh projects or closed projects out, and then that's how we've been able to potentially pay for new projects. And so sometimes when you see those big ordinances and it's like CI and then there's like

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:22

$5,000.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:24

Yeah, and then um, you know, CI and there's another project code and there's like six hundred and ninety-seven dollars, you're like, wow, these are like weird chunks of change, but it's because that's what was left over from the project. So now you're combining these funds to pay for a new project. And so um sometimes those really those long ones, you're like, what the heck is in all this? But now that he explained all those terms, it's like, oh, I understand. Okay. So it's good. Um speaking of upcoming events, so you mentioned that we have town halls coming up. Uh, your first one is Wednesday, May 27th. That'll be at the City Park George Williams Banquet Hall. Um, if you don't know where that is, it's at the City Park Administration Building, 800 Goodnight, and there's a hall right in there. You walk right in, and um we'll have presentations, questions. Um, then we have another one, June 2nd at Rowling's Library, Brett Kelly A Room, Tuesday, June 9th at Lucera Library, and Thursday, June 11th at the YMCA community room. And if you're wondering why they're in so many different places, there's one in each district. So um you don't have to live within that district to attend one of the town halls. So if I'm in district three but I can only attend the district one, I can go to that one. Um and they will be live streamed if you can't make it in person, and there'll be lots of opportunities to ask you questions.

Mayor, Heather Graham 18:57

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:58

Cool. Um anything else we need to know, Mayor?

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:03

I don't think so.

Memorial Day Notes And Closing

Haley Sue Robinson 19:04

Okay. Uh I think we should tell the listener to be safe during Memorial Day weekend. Um celebrate safely, but also very exciting weekend for the city. Uh City Park rides open, the pools open.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:19

I don't know if we're gonna open the pools.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:21

Oh, really?

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:22

It's too cold.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:23

Well, yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:24

I mean the water up to a certain temp that we can depends on the next couple days if it rains.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:32

It's like fifty some degrees today.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:34

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:35

I don't really know if this is swimming weather.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:38

Yeah, I d I think the water has to be I you know, I just learned this last night. The water has to be at like seventy-four degrees.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:45

Really?

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:45

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:46

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:47

And uh if it's not the health department. Um, okay.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:52

So it's like a regular.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:55

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:55

Okay. Okay, so maybe not. Stand by on the pools.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:58

Stand by.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:59

But kiddy rides will be open. Um, and this is kind of like the unofficial kickoff to summer, so it'll be it'll be a good weekend. But everybody be safe for Memorial Day. City will be closed on Monday, and we'll be back on Tuesday with the city council meeting. Okay. Yeah. Sounds great. Uh, I want to remind you you can find us on Apple, Spotify, Buzzsprout, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. You can email us, topic suggestions or questions, mayor @pueblo.us, and we will see you next week.