The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 63

Episode 63 of The Mayor's Mixtape includes direct questions to Mayor Heather Graham about Project Falcon. Find out some answers about the negotiation process and the approvals needed to get the deal done. 

 Additionally, this episode covers highlights of the City Council meeting from Monday, June 8. Don't forget about all the upcoming events in the city with Mayor Graham's town halls June 9 and June 11, the Community Dog Walk with Visit Pueblo, the Grand Opening for the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America and the e-waste recycling event on Saturday, June 13 at RecycleWorks. 

Transcript

Welcome And Where To Listen

Haley Sue Robinson 0:06

Welcome to the 63rd episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:10

Is it 63rd?

Haley Sue Robinson 0:12

Yeah. Last week was 62.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:15

Oh. Well, okay.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:17

Uh I'm Haley Sue Robinson, the Director of Public Affairs for the City of Pueblo.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:21

I'm Heather Graham, City of Pueblo Mayor.

Brian McCain 0:23

Brian McCain, Chief of Staff.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:26

And uh want to remind the listener, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch on local channel 17. And if you have questions or topic suggestions, you can email us mayor @pueblo.us.

Project Falcon NDA Questions

Haley Sue Robinson 0:42

Mayor, we had a busy week last week before the weekend, and there's been a lot that's happened since the last time we had the podcast. So I thought I would talk about the Falcon in the room.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:59

That's catchy.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:59

Yeah, I thought so too. So we had City Council, a couple of counselors that hosted a town hall last week, and then you hosted a press conference to talk about Project Falcon. I just wanted to outright ask you a couple of questions that I think a lot of people are curious about. One in particular is did you sign the NDA with Project Falcon?

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:23

Yes, so I sign on behalf of the entire city. So that encompasses uh all elected officials and all city staff that's been working. Um and this was done probably in October of last year.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:35

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:35

We've been under NDA for quite some time.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:37

Okay. Um and also did you violate the NDA last week during your press conference?

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:44

I did not.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:45

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:46

The um term tissue manufacture manufacturing um was put out by the company.

Haley Sue Robinson 1:55

Okay. Uh by Project Falcon.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:57

Once uh that term was made public by the company, um it no longer fell within the NDA.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:04

Got it. So once it becomes publicly available, um it it's no longer within the NDA guidelines.

Mayor, Heather Graham 2:12

Yep. And um there's you know, there was several things going back and forth uh with Project Falcon that at one time we were under NDA um, but through the process and city council being able to communicate recently, um so you know, before uh the counselors gave their town hall on Wednesday, a lot of the information that they were disclosing was also under the NDA. And so we had to go back and forth with the company and get uh specific permissions of things that we were allowed to talk to. Um, you know, one of the most misleading things I've been hearing in the community is there was still to be further negotiations. Um that is not true. Uh we have negotiated to the point that um where it was to be made public at this point. That is why it was on the agenda uh for for discussion. So um it has been very secretive for quite some time in order uh for the city to get their negotiations um completed. But what people saw on the agenda uh what the MOU, if if people had the chance to look at it, um, that was the end negotiated product. Um and the reason that is, is because it is literally everything that the city has to offer. There is nothing more that the city could negotiate that would be favorable to Project Falcon. So the land for free, the infrastructure and the 15 million in cash uh for jobs, that's the max value at this point that the city has to offer in incentives. Um so we are to that point that the public should be weighing in um on these topics. Um and so that is why Project Falcon allowed City Council to have talking points to be able to go and have the public discussion that they were going to have um at the regular meeting on June 22nd. So, yes, at some time we were all under NDA for specific terms, um specific parts of the negotiations, but that was worked out because we are at that public process point now.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:26

So uh most of the information is kept confidential throughout the negotiations uh portion of conversation with any project. Um and then when this MOU comes forward, that's the signal to the community that then we can start to talk about some things. So some of the things that were also shared that were some uh that was some misinformation was like that it was a AI data center, that um um you know folks had other ideas of what this project was going to be. And so then there was some clarification of its advanced manufacturing, um and

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:04

paper goods, is there uh?

Haley Sue Robinson 5:07

Consumer goods.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:08

Consumer goods.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:08

Consumer goods.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:09

Um all of that was .

Haley Sue Robinson 5:10

Consumer package goods.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:12

Consumer packaged goods, all of that was yeah, this the the company gave this talking points to city council to be able uh to articulate um at the town hall during their public comments. Um that comes from the company.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:26

Okay. Um another thing that we talked about last week was you know some of the process, but um I thought it was interesting. You uh shared yesterday that not only was this MOU going to be on uh council's agenda, then we would have seen the jobs agreement. But then can you talk about the the full process of what it looks like all the

Incentives, MOU, And Public Process

Haley Sue Robinson 5:51

way through?

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:51

Yeah, so um as far as the city, the MOU was gonna be the starting point.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:57

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:58

Um where it would kind of signal to all of the other entities that they're asking for incentive packages from, right? Because the city's um is the second largest portion. And so if the city isn't able to do uh the max value of what Project Falcon is requesting, um then why should the other entities continue down the path? Because it does have a cost to it.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:18

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 6:18

Um so city council was to uh review, approve, or deny the MOU um working at the same time was the Urban Renewal Authority um and creating a TIF district for this area. Um so there has been uh blight studies, all of this stuff costs money that the Urban Renewal has to pay in order to hire somebody to come in and do these studies. So those have been ongoing.

Haley Sue Robinson 6:45

Okay

Mayor, Heather Graham 6:47

The PURA board today at their meeting was supposed to give um the same kind of direction that city council gives. Yes, move forward, yes, continue uh working with the taxing entities to see if they're going to agree. Um Project Falcon also requested that that all be moved off of PURA's agenda today. But what would have happened is PURA would have voted today, you know. Yes, do you want to continue the due diligence process, yes, you want to continue to go to the taxing entities. So the taxing entities are made up of their own separate boards that have no control um over the government and over elected officials. So you have District 60, district 70, um, the library, um, and uh the water. And so PURA would then go to each of these board meetings and they would present. Um we call it like going on the roadshow. I just did it with PURA for CSU Pueblo. Um and you have to go and you have to ask these different um boards and districts that they represent um to give up their property tax for 25 years.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:50

Got it.

Mayor, Heather Graham 7:51

So this would have become a very public um discussion outside of county commissioners, outside of city council, outside of the mayor, um, because in order for PURA to take a bond or to create a district, you have to have all of the taxing entities willing to give up their 25 years worth of property tax.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:09

They have to grant their permission and and say that they're bought in.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:14

They all have separate agreements. Yeah. Where there will be a public hearing where people can come and testify. Um

Haley Sue Robinson 8:20

So people could testify at each one of their board meetings as well, like the school board meetings that are.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:27

They all take public comment.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:29

Got it. Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:31

Um so this wasn't going to be just a sign stamped approved deal, you know, by the city. Uh the city is the lack last taxing authority to approve the plan for urban renewal. Um so this would have all ran consecutively, but per s per statue for the urban renewal authority, um you have 120 days of negotiation period. So this process would have continued for four months.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:56

So like you mentioned that today would have been the the PURA board meeting. So would today have signaled the beginning of the 120 days?

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:06

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 9:06

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:07

Where they would go and meet with each of these bodies, request their um twenty-five years, numbers and calculations would all be happening over that point, plans would be developed, um, they would take it to each of the boards, each of the boards would have to approve, there would all be public comment. Um and so it was we are to that point where this is the time for the public to weigh in.

Haley Sue Robinson 9:30

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 9:31

Um and I think the public is frustrating as they should be. Um this has been so hyped up, right? And uh within twenty-two hours of the city and the mayor and the community starting to have any kind of uh public discourse, Project Falcon asked to be removed from the agenda. So you kind of have to be wondering why doesn't Project Falcon want that public discourse to happen. It has to happen. These are taxpayer dollars, public dollars.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:01

It's a required part of the process.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:02

100%.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:04

Understood. Okay. Um anything else in particular you'd like to add about Project Falcon?

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:10

No, I mean there was, you know, discussion last night from the city council that um, you know, this project um wasn't done. Um but you know, that that tells me the city council has been having private conversations with Project Falcon outside of the city, um, which we think has been going on this entire time. Which is fine. Um if they wanna bring it back to the agenda, it's fine. Um my stance isn't gonna change unless the incentive package ultimately changes um and we'll have those discussions when that time happens. Um but the public needs to know that the negotiations have happened and now this is your time to weigh in. This was not premature. Um this is this is right where you're supposed to be. Um public discourse should happen and it should happen now.

Haley Sue Robinson 11:01

Okay. Great. All right.

City Council Meeting Highlights

Haley Sue Robinson 11:04

Um so last night we had a city council meeting, um, fairly large meeting to start, um, pretty packed chambers. We had uh 12 ordinances on final reading. We had we have uh 20 ordinances, um now 19 that will be on final reading for June 22nd, so they were on first reading last

Funding The Fallen Officer Memorial

Haley Sue Robinson 11:25

night. Um one of the ordinances that was approved last night was an ordinance you brought forward with uh our retired police chief Troy Davenport for the Fallen Officer Memorial Fund. Um can we talk a little bit about that and the funding source for that project?

Mayor, Heather Graham 11:41

Yeah, sure. So as you know, they've been working on this project um for quite some time to try to raise the funds um in order to put the memorial up. And as I stated, you know, there were several us of us, City Council, community member staff who went um in May to go to the fallen officer memorial. Um and that time I really just said like we need to get this done.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:06

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:06

Um it's a good thing for our community. This is stuff that we can all have um buy-in on. Um so then I started uh lobbying the Urban Renewal Authority um and the commissioners about um trying to come up with the funding um in order to get this project done.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:26

Great. And um, you know, we heard from quite a few community members, former police officers, um you know, not just uh Pueblo police. We heard from the sheriff's department, we heard from State Patrol. Um you know, this this really has good community support and uh had to laugh uh when President Aliff said that you could come and oppose this at your own peril.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:51

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:52

Um because it was pretty moving.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:54

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:55

Um and so um that passed 7-0.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:59

That was good. Uh thank you, City Council, for um supporting uh law enforcement and um really supporting a site where uh community members can go and uh reflect and remember um officers who are gone too soon.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:14

Yeah.

Pueblo Springs Expansion And Grocery Plans

Haley Sue Robinson 13:16

Okay. Um additionally, last night council approved um some waiver fees to uh wastewater connection fees for phase two of Pueblo Springs apartments. Those are the uh new apartments that are near um station 11 on the west side. Um and this is for an additional 112 units. And uh the developer explained last night that he's been in talks with also bringing a grocery store to the west side between 24th and 31st streets. Um I was curious how how have you or how has city staff been involved with this development process?

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:51

Yeah, city staff's been heavily involved um even before my term, uh previous administration granted. Um it was one of the very first things that was kind of the carryover from when Mayor Gradisar left to to I came in. Um this was the agenda item, so it's something that he had been working on, same type of deal, doing the waivers for wastewater improvements uh for attainable housing. Um so the city um has worked very closely with Emory. Um he's a good developer, he's a good partner um in our community, gets his projects done very quick. Um so we were happy to support um the waiver of the wastewater fees um in order to get these units. I think he said it's 70% full for his current and I think we did the the ribbon cutting in August of last year. Uh so that's pretty dang good to be seventy percent full. And

Haley Sue Robinson 14:47

Well, and when we did the ribbon cutting in August, they actually hadn't totally completed all of the construction. They just opened that first half. Um it's like the first half of the first phase, basically. And so then they actually didn't finish the full project until January was when um all of the units were available for occupancy. So 70% in six months. Um is really good.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:15

Pretty good. Um and we're also uh meeting with him on the grocery store that he talked about um and we're going through the annexation and subdivision process uh with him right now for that grocery store. So it's gonna be an exciting addition to the West Side.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:31

Yeah. Um and I think that's one thing that uh Berrit Odom, our director of planning, also talked about was we'll see additional things come forward as far as um planning and zoning and updates uh there. But uh another thing I was surprised was it's a $28 million project. Um so this is pretty significant for for the city. And then as I mentioned, uh 112 units. Another thing that was interesting last night too was that um I guess we I guess we got some moodlighting. Oh, there we go. Okay. We just had to move.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:07

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:08

Um was that all of the th three bedrooms at the apartments are uh full. And so that tells me that there's families. Yeah, there's demand for uh families. So um anything else you'd like to add about last night? I know it was a long agenda, but there were also just some things that were kind of a little bit routine as far as um like the Jackson and Adams roundabout. Um anything else you'd like to add, Mayor?

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:38

No, it was uh good night for good night at City

Town Halls, Dog Walk, And E-Waste

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:42

Council.

Haley Sue Robinson 16:42

Yeah. Um couple up of upcoming events. Uh we have two more town halls this week, one tonight at 5 30, uh Lucero Library, another one on Thursday at the YMCA. Um as a reminder, those are budget town halls talking about budget for 2026 and what folks want to see for 2027. Um I'm hoping the folks notice the Mona Lisa addition. It is Leonardo da Vinci Grand Opening Week.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:10

Yep.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:11

Um So we'll see that on Friday, um 10 a.m. Oh, and I also don't want to skip uh we have the community dog walk Wednesday night at uh the Riverwalk.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:22

We're busy all week.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:23

We're very busy this week. Uh so Tuesday night, town hall, Wednesday night, dog walk, Thursday night, town hall, Friday, grand opening. Also Saturday, we have e-waste recycling at Recycle Works from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Uh 1595 Stockyard Road. Um and one more thing that's upcoming is we have an open house for the Pueblo shelter next Thursday. Uh that's from 2 to 5. And we're gonna have some folks next week on the podcast to talk to us about um that open house from Safeside Recovery, so that'll be good.

Mayor, Heather Graham 18:00

Great.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:00

Anything that I'm missing?

Brian McCain 18:03

Do you have a list of what you can bring to the e-waste recycling event?

Haley Sue Robinson 18:07

Oh, did you want me to read it? I don't have all of them, but I have quite a few. Uh microwaves, TVs, power cords, radio, cell phones, and more. If you want the full list, because it's like probably 30 or 40 items long, um, you can go to the city's Facebook page. You can find us on Nextdoor. Um, and we also put out a release about that as well. Um, I think the um health department also has that information on their Facebook page as well. Um I can't name all of it, Brian. I'm sorry.

Brian McCain 18:38

It's all right. We get a lot of calls and emails about where can I take my TV or my old computer. So I think it's important to get that out there that this is the place that you can actually do that.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:49

Well, and that's what everyone asks us during our big cleanup event is can I bring my TV? No, you can't bring e-waste, but this is the event that you can bring your e-waste. So um, and also people ask, what is e-waste, electronic waste? Um Okay. We're very busy. It's very exciting, a lot of fun things going on in Pueblo.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:11

It's very hot.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:12

It's very hot. It is

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:14

Stay cool, Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:15

Very hot. I got my first sunburn already. It's good stuff. Okay, uh want to remind you you can find us on YouTube, Buzz Sprout, uh, Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, you can email us mayor @pueblo.us, find us on local channel 17, and we will see you next week.