The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 62

The Mayor's Mixtape Episode 62 explains about the voluntary separation program (VSP) offered for early retirement with city employees. Additionally, Mayor Graham explains potential proposed ballot initiatives for November 2026 and budget information from her town halls. 

 Don't forget to join Mayor Graham at one of her upcoming town halls on Tuesday June 2, Tuesday June 9 or Thursday June 11. All town hall meetings start at 5:30pm. 

 Questions or topic suggestions can be sent to mayor@pueblo.us.

Transcript

Welcome And How To Reach Us

Haley Sue Robinson 0:07

Welcome to the 62nd 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.

Brain McCain 0:16

Brian McCain, Chief of Staff.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:18

And I want to remind the listener, you can find us on YouTube, Buzzsprout, Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. You can email us, mayor @pueblo.us for your questions or topic suggestions. And we would love to hear from you. Please share it with your friends, neighbors, colleagues. Like, subscribe, and rate the podcast.

Voluntary Separation Program Explained

Haley Sue Robinson 0:40

City Council recap, Mayor, last night we had a work session. And you actually presented at the work session last night for the voluntary separation program. This is something that you presented to council during their work retreat earlier this year. And so you gave an update of what that looks like. And so I thought maybe we could talk about that a little bit further.

Mayor Heather Graham 1:01

Yeah, so we proposed this voluntary separation agreement to everybody except for police and fire, where we would pay you out based on your years to voluntarily retire, separate from the city of Pueblo. So we had 17 applicants originally through the process. Five ended up withdrawing or not wanting to complete the process. So we had twelve the savings for 2026, six months, and twelve months in 2027 is going to be about $1.7 million to the city in wages and benefits. So it's it's a it's a large number, um, a large reduction. And I think we're gonna offer this again um towards the end of the year because some individuals wanted to take it, but they just didn't have enough time to f uh figure out their benefit situation.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:01

Sure, working through the logistics. So um were there more than the five, do you think? Do you think there were potentially more than

Mayor Heather Graham 2:10

Yeah, we had a lot of interesting in it, and um we had a lot of uh employees share that the timing just wasn't right, and if it was done later in the year, um they would find it more acceptable to be able to do it.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:27

I mean it's a it's a big decision to retire in general um and then to have an incentive package put in front of you. It's a it's a lot to retire to make that decision to retire. Um the other thing that you mentioned was that there was conversations with each of the department heads as far as who was going to retire and then

Keeping Departments Running After Retirements

Haley Sue Robinson 2:47

what that would look like um structure-wise. Can you talk a little bit about that process?

Mayor Heather Graham 2:51

Yeah, we we wanted to make sure that the department would still have the capacity to operate right if you are a smaller department and you only have one admin tech. Um that's not really gonna work if your admin tech wants to leave. Um, and then we can't fill that position right.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:07

Right.

Mayor Heather Graham 3:07

So each of the positions um we went with the directors, talked through what that would look like for other employees to potentially pick up their workload or directors or deputy directors. Um and so it was a pretty thorough process before we granted the applications.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:26

So the way that it works is the folks who uh apply to retire, then you freeze that position within the department and then that's why we have the salary savings. Okay. And so then that conversation included who within staff would do that work or how operations would continue that way the city's still functioning at a high level.

Mayor Heather Graham 3:50

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:51

Okay. And you mentioned um that this may be offered later in the year. Um so was that a discussion with uh department heads or what what will that look like kind of moving forward?

Mayor Heather Graham 4:04

We haven't got to that point yet.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:05

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 4:06

I was just kind of talked internally with the group and I let city council know last night that we might be offering again um if if it made sense for the city.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:16

Sure. Okay, so the um 1.7 million that's for the remaining the remainder of 2026 and for 2027. Um and when will these folks retire from the city?

Mayor Heather Graham 4:29

Their last day is either June 15th or June 30th.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:32

Okay. So um we'll say thank you to our hardworking employees.

Mayor Heather Graham 4:37

For your service.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:39

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 4:43

Thank you for helping the City out.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:43

Okay. That's fantastic. Um I know that you worked uh closely with HR and um with department heads, and so it was not just a easy process to determine.

Mayor Heather Graham 4:56

Yeah, yeah. HR really put this together and it was uh it was uh a good plan. The city did this in 2014.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:03

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 5:04

Um so it was something we dusted off and talked about and are having to bring back um because we still have a significant

Position Freezes And Budget Savings

Mayor Heather Graham 5:12

shortfall to try to cover.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:15

Um and another thing that I wanted to bring up is so last year uh for the proposed 2026 budget, you froze was it seven positions?

Mayor Heather Graham 5:25

Twenty-four.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:26

Oh, twenty-four positions. Um how many positions now in 2026? Um, because as people resign, retire, are terminated, you've looked at each of those positions or even you know, promotions. Um you've looked at those positions. How many positions?

Mayor Heather Graham 5:47

Eight so far.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:48

Eight more.

Mayor Heather Graham 5:49

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:49

Okay, so eight in addition to the twenty four. Um and then twelve from the voluntary separation program.

Mayor Heather Graham 5:58

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:59

Okay, so that's uh forty-six. I'm not very good at math there. So you didn't hire me to do math.

Mayor Heather Graham 6:07

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:07

Neither did the previous administration. That's not my strong suit. So is it 46? Brian, can you help me? We have the 32 plus eight plus twelve.

Mayor Heather Graham 6:16

We have the additional from

Haley Sue Robinson 6:18

No, twenty-four plus eight plus twelve.

Mayor Heather Graham 6:20

We have the additional from twenty-four to twenty-five's budget.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:25

Oh, right. Okay. So was that eighteen?

Mayor Heather Graham 6:28

I think it was eighteen. So we've had a lot of um probably unfunded and abolished positions since I've been the mayor. So we've had a huge reduction.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:43

Would you say that's close to like sixty?

Mayor Heather Graham 6:45

Fifty, sixty, yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:46

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 6:46

Yeah. Some have been reclassified. Um like they were positions that were unfunded, but the the eighteen I'm talking about, the original eighteen, some of the positions were unfunded, um, reclassified to other jobs, but their their jobs were still open and their titles existed. Uh, but the the city council did not fund those. So that will skew the the amount, but some of those positions were funded um out of those original 18. The 24 for 25 to 26, those were funded positions. So it was

Haley Sue Robinson 7:23

And they have been abolished.

Mayor Heather Graham 7:25

They've just been not funded. So the position still exists, there's no funding allocated.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:31

Allocated to it.

Mayor Heather Graham 7:32

And that was a $2.4 million savings.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:35

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 7:35

And we did that the night the budget passed.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:38

Right. Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 7:39

And then since then we've had another eight that are unfunded, frozen. So still exist, but not being funded.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:49

Got it.

Mayor Heather Graham 7:50

Um and year to date that total projection will be eight hundred and sixty-nine thousand dollars in savings for the city.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:58

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 7:59

For twenty-six.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:01

Got it. Okay. And so

Mayor Heather Graham 8:02

have no impact on twenty-seven, right? Because we won't be we didn't fun we're not funding them for the remainder of twenty-six.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:11

Mm-hmm. Okay. I think the listener just maybe learned something about how bad my math is. So I do uh invite anyone to leave a comment of how many uh

Mayor Heather Graham 8:23

math ain't math.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:24

Yeah, of how many positions have been uh frozen and how much money has been saved. Um I'm not embarrassed about my math skills, so it's all good.

Mayor Heather Graham 8:35

Yeah. 42.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:37

Okay. Thanks for thanks for explaining that. I think that's helpful.

Mayor Heather Graham 8:41

Yeah.

Four Quarter Percent Ballot Options

Haley Sue Robinson 8:42

Um another thing uh related to the budget, um, Mayor, you've been hosting uh budget town halls. You started last week with one. We have another one tonight. Um and something that was brought up at your town hall was uh potential ballot measures. Um you are uh proposing potentially four at 0.25 percent. Um so what does that look like or what what does that entail maybe?

Mayor Heather Graham 9:08

Yeah. So we've heard um we've had to make reductions in part-time employees, which in turn was reductions in programs like the tennis program, right? Um so instead of asking citizens for an overall tax increase, we have decided to look at, I have decided to look at um breaking one percent down into four different categories. Um so if somebody wanted to fund, use their funding, their additional funding to fund like parks, pools, and programs, they could vote yes for that 0.25% and they could vote no for the other three, right?

Haley Sue Robinson 9:45

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 9:45

If you only want your money to go to infrastructure, you can select that. Um if you want your funding to go to nonprofits and non-departmentals, you could you could select that. So the four categories that we're looking at, and these are all just proposed, um, is parks, programs, and pools, point two five.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:05

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 10:05

Um infrastructure and technology. No. Infrastructure and roads, point two five.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:09

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 10:10

Technology and fire, so updates to fire stations, fire equipment, um, and technology throughout the whole city. Uh broadband, fire or fiber. Um, I'm not talking, I said yesterday on the news, I'm not talking about buying new cell phones or computers for employees, but

Haley Sue Robinson 10:28

I can't get a new laptop with that.

Mayor Heather Graham 10:30

No, but the internal technology that the city uses to function um,

Haley Sue Robinson 10:35

Yeah, like dispatch and radios.

Mayor Heather Graham 10:37

That's something that needs updating every year.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:39

Right.

Mayor Heather Graham 10:40

It's not something that we can we cannot put money into.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:43

Sure.

Mayor Heather Graham 10:44

And then non-departmentals and nonprofits on the fourth one. So the city funds about six million dollars um a year between all the contractual non-departmentals, Zoo, HSPPR, nature center, harp, um the chamber chamber, state fair. Um and so that money would be specifically allocated and budgeted um CSAC to that that group of non-departmentals.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:15

Okay. So um last year the city ran a ballot measure for one percent. This is four separate ballot measures that all add up to one percent.

Mayor Heather Graham 11:27

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:28

But um, as we know, that ballot measure did not pass. Um overwhelmingly did not pass. Um but if roads and infrastructure was important to me and fire and technology was important to me, I could just vote for those two, um, which would be half

Mayor Heather Graham 11:48

of the total.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:50

Or I could vote for all four.

Mayor Heather Graham 11:51

Right.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:53

Or I could vote for none of them.

Mayor Heather Graham 11:54

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:54

I could do whatever I want with my vote. Okay. All right. Um, so what was what was the feedback at at the town hall? Um, or what has been the feedback or discussion about it?

Mayor Heather Graham 12:08

People like being able to choose what they want to tax themselves on than the overall one percent. I mean nobody likes taxes right, but if you want your services to continue, you have to pay for those services.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:18

Sure.

Mayor Heather Graham 12:19

Um, and that's where we're at. Um I think people are gonna be more susceptible to to choosing which point two five percent is

Haley Sue Robinson 12:33

important to them. Yeah, sure. Okay. Great. So there'll be more discussion about that as we continue with your town halls.

Mayor Heather Graham 12:40

Yeah, we're just trying to get feedback to see what people think about it. Um we don't have to take it to city council till August.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:47

Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 12:48

That's a deadline, so we'll start educating and um getting feedback.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:52

So next steps is the is the conversation and then drafting the ballot language, and then that will go before council to be approved in August, which then eventually determines uh the ballot for November. Okay. Great.

Budget Town Halls And Key Questions

Haley Sue Robinson 13:11

Um anything else about your town halls that folks should anticipate or know about?

Mayor Heather Graham 13:17

I don't think so. Just show up, ask questions. It's more of an interactive.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:22

Yeah, it was more of a back and forth last week with folks. Um people asked very specific questions. Uh, you know, like how did uh paving roads work before and where was that money allocated? Um how much money does the city

Mayor Heather Graham 13:41

give to homelessness?

Haley Sue Robinson 13:42

Yeah, spend on the shelter and the unhoused population. Um There were very specific questions from individuals you could tell what they were

Mayor Heather Graham 13:51

passionate about.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:52

Yeah.

Mayor Heather Graham 13:52

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:53

So yeah, as you said, a little more interactive, no no PowerPoint, no death by PowerPoint, which was nice.

Mayor Heather Graham 13:59

Yeah,

Haley Sue Robinson 14:00

I can appreciate that.

Mayor Heather Graham 14:01

Yeah, one I give a one sheeter and this has all the information that we're gonna talk about.

Haley Sue Robinson 14:06

Great. Um so we do have another town hall tonight at the Rowlings Library. All the town halls start at 5 30. Uh tonight's will be at Brett Kelly A. Um, then we have one next Tuesday at Lucero Library, and we have one next Thursday at the YMCA. So you have one in each of the four districts. Um folks can attend any of them. You don't have to live in the specific district to attend the specific uh town hall. Um but it's a good opportunity for folks to ask questions and then give input, like you said, of what's important to them.

Mayor Heather Graham 14:43

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 14:43

Cool. Um anything else we should know about upcoming events?

Haley Sue Robinson 14:49

Project Falcon Town Hall Preview

Haley Sue Robinson 14:50 Mayor Heather Graham 14:50

There's a town hall tomorrow night.

Haley Sue Robinson 14:52

Oh yes, there is a town hall tomorrow night. Uh Councilor Hernandez um and Councilor Ruiz -Gomez are hosting a town hall about Project Falcon at um Hogue Amphitheater um Hogue Hall at PCC that starts at six o'clock and they're gonna ask questions or answer questions about Project Falcon.

Mayor Heather Graham 15:12

Right.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:14

Are you gonna attend, Mayor?

Mayor Heather Graham 15:15

I plan to, yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:16

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 15:18

Yeah, I have some questions of my own that I'm gonna ask city council.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:21

Great.

Mayor Heather Graham 15:22

So it should be a good should be some very good back and forth, a very good public discussion that I think uh the community is ready for the city to have it.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:32

Yeah, I know uh I saw on the Facebook uh comments and on Next Door folks have a lot of questions, so that'll be great.

Mayor Heather Graham 15:39

I mean who would have those types of questions with such a large incentive package?

Haley Sue Robinson 15:46

Sure.

Mayor Heather Graham 15:47

I mean something something that um of that magnitude should be talked about at great length uh for the community so all the community members kind of know what's going on, what their money is going to fund, what the return of investment is, um and what the project um what kind of impacts it will have um to our community. I think that if city council wasn't having those conversations, um, you know, somebody might be asking why that is. Why don't they want to have these conversations in public? Why don't they want to tell people what the the manufacturer manufactures? Um it's a lot of money. It's a huge investment, not just for the city, but for the company. Um and so I think that we want to make sure that it's the right investment. Um if public comes out and says it's the right investment, then I would expect city council to to move forward. The public shows up and says we have questions and um we want to know why you want to incentivize this company at this magnitude.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:00

Sure.

Mayor Heather Graham 17:00

Um I hope that city council can answer those questions um of why they want to do this.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:06

Great. Okay. So we'll find out tomorrow night. Um anything else, Mayor?

Mayor Heather Graham 17:14

No, I don't I don't think so. Am I missing anything?

Haley Sue Robinson 17:17

I don't think so. Um I did mention, so I mentioned your uh upcoming town halls.

Electronics Recycling Event Details

Haley Sue Robinson 17:23

I do want to have folks mark uh their calendars. Uh Brian, you mentioned this last night at City Council, Saturday, June 13th, um is the electronics recycling event. This is something that when we host our twice annual cleanup, everyone asks, Can I bring my TV? What about my microwave? And we say, no e-waste. Um electronics is e-waste, so bring your power cords, bring your microwave, your uh TV, your computer monitor, your cell phone, other electronics, uh, whatever those are. Um and there's a full list on the city's Facebook page and our next door, and there's a $1 per pound uh recycling fee, but that's at RecycleWorks, 1595 Stockyard Road, on Saturday, uh June 13th from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. So that'll be a great opportunity.

Da Vinci Grand Opening On Riverwalk

Haley Sue Robinson 18:17 Mayor Heather Graham 18:17

Next week we have a pretty big week with Da Vinci.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:20

We do, yeah. We'll have the grand opening on Friday.

Mayor Heather Graham 18:24

Some tourism dollars and economic development dollars into our uh uh community. This is a project that everybody should should get behind, um, go support, um, go check it out. There's gonna be jousting.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:41

Yeah, they

Mayor Heather Graham 18:42

on the riverwalk.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:43

They have um a a full schedule of events. So they have different performers um every hour on the hour, Friday and Saturday.

Mayor Heather Graham 18:51

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:52

Jousting, there's gonna be some food trucks, musicians, magic, um, like an Italian street fair right here in the middle of Pueblo. So very exciting. Uh

Mayor Heather Graham 19:03

very exciting. More people should be talking about this. Um we're gonna talk about it, we're gonna hype it up.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:08

Yeah,

Mayor Heather Graham 19:09

We're gonna be there all week. So we're excited. Um, super excited this came into our community and and we're gonna reap the benefits of it.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:17

Yeah, very exciting. Um, I did go yesterday by the museum, and it is just changing every day, and it's absolutely incredible, and I can't wait for the public to be able to finally go in and see everything. It's amazing. Yeah, very exciting. Cool. Uh anything else I'm missing there?

Mayor Heather Graham 19:38

There's just so much I can't keep track, but

Haley Sue Robinson 19:42

Okay. But for another time, I guess. Okay.

Mayor Heather Graham 19:45

For another day, we've got meetings to get to.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:48

All right, sounds

Closing And Subscribe Reminder

Haley Sue Robinson 19:49

good. Um, I want to invite the listener to find us on YouTube, BuzzSprout, Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Um, you can also watch us on local channel 17. Remember, you can email us, mayor @pueblo.us, and we will see you next week.