The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 66

Episode 66 of the Mayor's Mixtape includes an update about City support for the Aspen Acres Fire and Mayor Graham outlines how the City of Pueblo has responded with mutual aid. 

 The episode also recaps the City Council Work Session from Monday, July 6 with information about the RFQ, RFI and RFP process. What do each of those mean? What are next steps for economic development with the City of Pueblo? Chief of Staff McCain also explains his presentation from the Work Session and what fee schedules and updates are happening with Pueblo Memorial Airport. 

 Don't forget to like, subscribe and share. Send your questions and topic suggestions to mayor@pueblo.us. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Welcome And Ways To Connect

Haley Sue Robinson 0:07

Welcome to the 66th 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

Brian McCain, Chief of Staff.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:18

And I want to remind you, you can find this podcast on YouTube, Apple, BuzzSprout, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on local channel 17. And if you have questions or want to suggest a topic to Mayor Graham, you can email us at mayor @pueblo.us.

Aspen Acres Fire Authority Explained

Haley Sue Robinson 0:35

Mayor, before we get started about City Council last night, I thought maybe we could talk about uh the Aspen Acres fire. Um I know you put out a post on Sunday uh talking to the public community about it, but it's been something now that's been going on for a week and a half and pretty impactful in our community.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:53

Eight days today. Yeah. Um we've been trying to make sure the public is um aware of where and how uh they can get resources, who has authority over what, um, which I think is one of the biggest uh misconceptions. Uh we're taking a lot of calls here at City Hall. Um but we're we're the low guys on the totem pole now. It we've it's escalated all the way up to the federal government. So um we just try to direct people where they need to be, uh directed to to get information. Um so I think that it it's really important that the public realizes. Um when we have a catastrophe or a natural disaster, uh like a fire, um, even if it is in city limits, what typically happens is the county will come in and assume the fire or um anything else going on. Um once it escalates past the county's resource level, the state comes in and takes it over. Um past the state as the federal government. And the reason uh why we do that is because their resources are much more elaborate than local communities are, um especially for the state and the feds. Uh we now have tons of air support um that we didn't have before. Um and we'll be able to ask for reimbursement for our man hours um or fuel, um anything that is an expenditure now once it is moved up in those those stages up to the state and to the Fed. So I know that that's very confusing for people in our community of what that looks like and how information is is put out and I mean you know best about that. Um how the information comes down and we put it out, we don't we're not the ones creating the information or making the plans or having um the authority. So I know that that can be super frustrating to people right now.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:05

Um but also you mentioned in your post just about you know how many resources have been used locally, um, not just within our city departments, but locally to respond. Um and I think that's important too. While while the feds are here and the Alaska complex incident management team has taken over, um we still have a lot of folks who are Puebloans, who are uh county residents, who are locals who are working and volunteering to make a difference during the fire right now, too.

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:41

Yeah. Yeah, we uh the Pueblo community is pulling the resources um and then uh the higher ups are saying where they're essentially used.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:52

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um so we just want to say thank you to our our local responders and to all of our local volunteers who have made a difference over the last week and uh and will continue to make a difference. Um I I've been working in the Joint Information Center, and so I I'm gonna put a shameless plug in there that um, you know, now this it encompasses four different counties, so Pueblo, Custer, Fremont, and Huerfano County. Um but if you want to stay up to date about information, I know it's very difficult during an emergency and and uh disasters to find who has the best information or up-to-date accurate information. Um you can find it at puebloemergency.info. You can also follow the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office page on Facebook, or you can call the Joint Information Center at 719-583-4640. And they're open uh Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Brian McCain 4:52

And Haley has been an amazing resource during this entire incident and the past eight days. You've put in a lot of time, hours, helping coordinate everything out of the JIC over there. So you deserve a lot of credit for that.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:07

Yeah, we're gonna come on what the JIC is.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:09

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:10

How it works, what you guys are doing, because that's confusing.

What The Joint Information Center Does

Haley Sue Robinson 5:13

Uh well, and you hear Joint Information Center, and what does that mean?

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:16

I used to call it the JIG. The JIG, yeah. It feels like we're doing the JIG. Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:21

And then I'm like, well, that doesn't add up. Yeah, we um you know, we're the government, so we like a lot of acronyms, right? So we have the EOC, the emergency operations center, and then we have the JIC, the Joint Information Center. So it's like a big call center. You come in, um, we have volunteers, we have folks that have been trained. Um we have this group, it's called the Risk Communication Network. And so it's communicators, marketing professionals, public information officers, um, and just volunteers in the community. We have folks in there, actually a couple of folks who are retired and have been trained. Um this was all stood up with the um chemical depot. And so the the CSEP exercises, which is the chemical stockpile emergency preparedness. Um when you go into the JIC, it's this big call center, and then there's a big screen up there that shows us all the information. So you call in as a as someone who's been evacuated or you have an emergency, and we can answer your questions about the disaster assistance center, about the United Way Donation Center, where are the shelter locations, uh, can I get help for my livestock that needs to be rescued? Where can I donate food? Um, what do you all need? I can't I don't have any transportation. Um, I don't have internet access. We we get questions about all kinds of things. Um we also have a lot of questions for from folks who are out of town worried about their family. So we take all those calls, we get folks connected to their resources, and then we update that Puebloemergency.info page. Um I think yesterday we probably had 16 people in the JIC, which uh was the most that we've had since this started. We also coordinate all the press briefings every day. Um and then we have a group of folks that share their resources. So like yesterday, SRDA uh let us know they were doing transportation, so we shared their Facebook post. Uh United Way said, hey, we stood up this resource for financial donations, for physical donations, for volunteers, so we shared their information. Um so it's we're kind of the information hub and it all goes through us. But the other piece is is we make sure it's verified. So just because one person tells us something doesn't mean it's accurate yet. We try and verify it um multiple times before it's put out to the public. So uh a lot of volunteers, a lot of people. Gail Perez at the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, she's the JIC lead and um has done an incredible job with the communication through this emergency. Yeah.

How The Emergency Operations Center Runs

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:15

You should tell them what the EOC is.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:17

Oh, the emergency operations center? Okay. Well, so that's where we get our all our information from. Um so we have what we call a JIC liaison and there's briefings and updates every day.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:28

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:28

So they come from the fire desk, the law desk.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:31

Yes, it's like this big building on tenth.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:35

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:36

Um that's like a dispatch center with multiple screens, multiple resources and people in the room.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:45

And if everyone if anyone's ever seen like a real-time crime center, so that's a really big screen, right?

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:50

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:51

This screen is triple the real-time crime center, I would say.

Mayor, Heather Graham 8:56

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 8:57

And so um you have ESF desks. And so um at each of the desks they report out during the briefings. So we hear from like Red Cross, we hear from CDOT, we hear from the state, um the health department, and and all of the officials that are at each of the desks, and they give the updates, and then um that that's where we uh then have our next course of action. So you have briefings throughout the day. Uh we have uh eight, ten, and five as guaranteed briefings. Uh, but then there's other briefings throughout the day as the emergency keeps going on.

Brian McCain 9:39

It's similar to if you watch a movie and there's a situation room, so a war or anything like that. So you have every agency in there represented. You're all in the same room. So if A needs B, who needs C, you're sitting right next to each other while you're kind of in the next room over getting the information out, taking the calls, and then if something comes up, you can go in there and say, hey fire, what's going on with this? Hey PD, what's going on with this? And it's all that information and all the controllers of what's going on in that room. So it's all real time. It's pretty cool.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:07

Yeah. It's really cool.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:08

And our city employees have been a huge asset to the EOC. Um yeah, we've had police, fire, public works, public fairs.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:19

Um even though Parks hasn't been in there, uh I've called parks nearly every day, and not just for the like advisory or alerts with um the air quality. They've helped us with golf carts, they've helped us with other resources. Um nearly every department has responded when we've needed it. Um it's been amazing.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:41

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:42

You know, we have all of the county, state, and federal resources, but I'm really, I gotta be honest, I'm really proud of our city resources and how we've responded.

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:53

Agreed.

Haley Sue Robinson 10:54

Yeah.

Donations, Volunteers, And Livestock Help

Brian McCain 10:55

And one, you may have uh glanced over this, but if there is a private individual or a business that would like to contribute, donate, what's the best avenue for them to do that? Because we do get a lot of calls from restaurants to, hey, I have some money or some clothes, where do I take it? So where do we direct them?

Haley Sue Robinson 11:12

Yeah, so that's at 1591 Taus Road Building D. Um, and that's coordinated by United Way of Southern Colorado. So they're taking uh if you want to volunteer, if you want to sort through items, if you want to give items, um, they have a full list of items on their website or on their Facebook page. Um you can also receive items there. They have food available every day with um World Service Kitchen. And then they also have a secure way of financially uh contributing. A lot of times when disaster strikes, you see folks who put up a GoFundMe or another resource. United Way is taking that so you can securely give and feel good about it. Um and then we also have a lot of resources at the Colorado State Fairgrounds with Livestock and the CART team. Um and they have three different information lines that's available on their Facebook page, or you can go to puebloemergency.info and you can find those resources. They have volunteers, trucks and trailer transport, and then if they need donations like hay or feed for for livestock. Yeah. It's good stuff. Okay, I feel like I talked too much, so now let's get back to the mayor's mixtape.

Mayor, Heather Graham 12:32

People want to know.

Haley Sue Robinson 12:33

I know, people do want to

City Council Work Session Recap

Haley Sue Robinson 12:35

know. Okay, um Mayor, let's get into the city council recap. I know uh you left for a brief amount of time. It wasn't that brief because uh there was a community meeting last night for the Aspen Acres fire. Um and you went to that at Centennial, but um it was a lengthy meeting. We had a presentation from Boys and Girls Club of Public County, Pueblo Food Project, the RFI process for economic development, presentation from Chief of Staff McCain regarding Councillor Gomez's request to staff, and then we also had a boards and commissions update um from council. I'm not quite sure where to start because last night was uh a little bit difficult to navigate at times, but maybe we should start with the RFI process and the RFQ.

RFI, RFQ, And RFP For Growth

Brian McCain 13:29

Yeah, I could jump in on this. So this was a request from President Aliff to explain the process of the RFI, RFQ, RFP, and to get the next steps going forward at the request of uh a council, which was actually last year, to send out an RFQ for an economic development consultant. Um, from the beginning, I this doesn't come out of a vacuum, right? This was directioned by council.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:54

Sure.

Brian McCain 13:54

Meetings were scheduled with council, which multiple times nobody showed up.

Mayor, Heather Graham 13:59

Yeah, I mean I think this is this has been a long uh drawn-out episode, and so we kind of have two things going on, right? We have the cancellation of the uh PEDCO contract, um which can coexist or may not coexist with the city council trying to establish an RFQ that went out. So we had draft information that was provided uh by city council. Um several meetings were set in which city council um did not participate. Um so the city actually stepped up and my staff put together the RFQ that was sent out. I believe that went out in late January.

Haley Sue Robinson 14:48

Um can we also just clarify what is a RFI, an RFQ and an RFP?

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:56

So RFI request for information. So that's when the city puts something out, maybe wanting to see. Um we did it since I've been the mayor, uh we did it one other time at our direction, my direction, for energy providers.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:12

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:12

When we were looking um to uh end our our franchise agreement with Black Hills. So we put that out to everybody just to kind of see who else is out there, what other companies would ever be able to provide provide, right?

Brian McCain 15:27

The easiest way to say it, it's research. So you have a topic or you want to know about something, an RFI is literally uh official process to research a thing for the government or for the city.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:38

Yep. So then the RFQ is when we put it out to contractors or consultants asking what their qualifications are and essentially what they could bring to the city through the bid process.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:52

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:53

Um city council at the time wanted to see what other kinds of companies or consultants were out there for economic development. This went out to 1,200 companies um across the US.

Brian McCain 16:09

Yep, 1,200 uh were directly emailed by the purchasing department because they control this process. Um I believe it was 1,200 directly emailed. There were 500 and some um that looked at it, and then there were, I believe, 17 possibly that downloaded it, and then seven started the application process, and five finished the application process.

Mayor, Heather Graham 16:35

Okay. So um then it it was 90 days that we had it out. We extended it um an additional thirty days because we just weren't getting back tons of responses. Um in the meantime of all of this, um one of our respondents was also um which they publicly stated that they were going to submit, um, also decided to file lawsuit against the city in the middle of all of this. Um and the other four um entities, some of them were uh incomplete. Um we really never got to evaluate what each individual company provided. Um, because really what we were looking for is to compile that information and then put it into an RFP. So there was definitely some misconceptions in communications last night at the city council meeting. Obviously, I had to call in. Um very heated because the whole point of the RFQ process was to gather information to bring back to city council to then formulate an RFP.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:53

And an RFP is a request for proposal.

Mayor, Heather Graham 17:55

Correct. Um but it also has to have dollar amounts tied to it, scope of work tied to it, um, what city council is looking for within an economic development consultant or um company. So we're still not to that point yet. Um but you know it was really disheartening to hear members of city council say, well, we don't have that information, but we don't know. Well, that's false. Um they have seen the proposals. Um at least two of them um I asked to review, um get back to me and tell me what they thought. Is there anything that they saw that they would like to pull to formulate the RFP?

Haley Sue Robinson 18:36

And who who were those two?

Mayor, Heather Graham 18:38

Um President Aliff and Councilwoman Danti had to get specific access from our purchasing department because all of these uh their proposal uh what they put in their proposals are confidential.

Brian McCain 18:47

It's important to say that they're confidential because in this process you can have one person say this, and then if that goes public, then the next guy or company or whatever can look at it and say, like, well, they you know they did better than us, we're gonna copy them for the the next stage of it. That's why it's confidential. It gives out proprietary information and makes it unfair.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:07

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 19:09

Um so we've we've really been waiting to hear um from city council on what they want to see um in their in the RFP. Are they going to um put money with it? Are they going to do it a compensation package based off of economic incentive packages that are brought into the city? What does that look like? None of that had been discussed at this point. Uh purchasing director didn't even get through her entire presentation last night to be able to present to city council the second part of okay, now I'm here to hear what are the next steps? What does city council um want to see? This is city council's um proposal. This is what they want to do. They have to, in fact, do the work um to get it done. So they have to participate, they have to give direction on what they want to see. They have to say, we want this dollar amount tied to this project. Um that stuff is just not going to get done um on its own. And this is the proposal that they want to put forward. Uh so it was it was uh just a complete disaster um last night. And it's it's unfortunate that they say that they don't have the information, they say they don't know um what's going on because not a single one of them has picked up the phone to call me or to call anybody in my staff to see what next steps are um and and what that's gonna look like and how can we get this done. Um you know, in fact, one of the city counselors wanted to bring a proposal together to bring economic development in-house and hire a director. So I was under the assumption that maybe that was going to be uh coming forward. So I know it's a super heated topic. Um and we all know why it's a it's a heated topic. There's there's outside um pressure that's being weighed in on city council. Um and quite frankly, you have city council who who does not want to participate to get the project started. Um I heard last night that they're part-time legislators, and that's not their role, uh, which is interesting, um, because that is their role. That is that is very much their role to uh give direction if they want something done um in the city. So I guess time will tell, and I I still don't have an answer of of what they want done. I didn't hear any direction. Um given last night we have a economic development strategic plan coming forward at the next meeting. Um so maybe we'll get some more insight on on what that looks like moving forward.

Haley Sue Robinson 21:55

I I think at the end um director of public works. Andrew Hayes said that staff could bring forward a proposal within ninety days for a council to take action on, and that was potentially an option. But I I don't know that we received direction from council.

Brian McCain 22:13

There was no clear direction at the end of it.

Haley Sue Robinson 22:15

Okay. Got it. Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 22:22

To be continued.

Haley Sue Robinson 22:22

TBD. Okay.

Putting Answers On The Record

Haley Sue Robinson 22:26

The next presentation was given by our chief of staff, Brian McCain, regarding questions from Councilor Gomez. You know, Brian, I don't know if I've ever heard you speak that quickly. I do know that you can talk pretty quickly, but it felt like we were maybe a little pressed for time, and you talked really fast.

Brian McCain 22:47

I was trying to give the previous clerk, Marissa Stoller, a run for a minute.

Haley Sue Robinson 22:51

I felt like you were. I felt like you were. I uh I felt it.

Brian McCain 22:55

Yeah, it it was a time crunch. But basically, what this was is we've heard repeated requests, I think, six times now from Councilor Gomez asking for these specific questions to be answered or these things to be done. Um we have responded verbally, we have responded via email, but as he likes to say, put it on the official record last night. I believe that's on the official record. So I took his questions verbatim. If you go back, I did not change anything on it.

Haley Sue Robinson 23:25

Sure.

Brian McCain 23:26

And I answered those questions directly, some of them a little bit too fast. You might have to slow it down a little bit.

Haley Sue Robinson 23:31

Just go watch it again and slow it down, maybe.

Brian McCain 23:33

Go watch it again. But I believe that every issue that he has continued to bring up was addressed last night. Uh the from Advanced Pueblo, the dissolution of Advanced Pueblo to the PEDCO being approved by the vote of the people to the gates in Bessemer Park and why the gates are not being closed yet. But I I did address those and uh I don't see if there's I don't see any more room for that to be brought up again because each one was directly addressed.

Haley Sue Robinson 24:02

And from my understanding, it didn't seem like council, the rest of council had any further questions or follow-up needed?

Brian McCain 24:11

They had questions, not necessarily about the questions I was answering. So you had some questions about uh who approves boards and commissions, what's council's authority is. Uh you had questions about who you know who do employees work for.

Haley Sue Robinson 24:28

Right.

Brian McCain 24:29

Uh big one was uh attorney for council, and that falls under the law department per charter. Uh there were those types of questions that kind of went off on the side. But other than that, I believe they were clearly answered. And we'll see what happens next council meeting.

Haley Sue Robinson 24:44

Okay. Okay.

Airport Updates And Public Comment Rules

Haley Sue Robinson 24:47

Um and then uh finally at the very end, council was going to forego any boards and commissions updates. We had uh update from Councilor Latino about the airport advisory commission. Um and there was some confusion about protocol as to how that works during a work session and whether we could receive public testimony from folks or not during that update. Um where do we go next from there?

Brian McCain 25:17

So I believe the people showed up because they were under the impression that they could give public comment, public testimony.

Haley Sue Robinson 25:23

Sure.

Brian McCain 25:24

Uh they were told that that's not the case. That's on a regular meeting. Um there was some discussion back and forth among some people that this violates their first amendment on it, but this is not how a work session works. This is very uh set by protocol when you do these things for a reason similar to a public comment at a council meeting. If you want to speak on an ordinance or a resolution that's going to be brought up, you sign up for it and you do not speak about it in public comment. This public comment is for public comment, and for a specific issue, you comment on that and go through the process. Uh they are the minimum standards, rules and regs, and the fees, I forget it's the fees and prices or whatever it's called. Um, those are all being updated. Uh the minimum standards and rules and regs have not been updated at their port since the 70s. I want to say between 72 and 75. I can't remember what it is. Obviously, this is important when you have an airport, and the FAA does give recommendation to allow 14 to no less than 14, no more than 30 days of public comment on it, which means the documents are available for public comment. And during this time, since the documents have been published, uh the comments have been taken in and it's being adjusted. The process is actually working on it. They feel that they need more time to digest these, and that's what they wanted to speak about. Um but but again, that the documents are public. Um they're they can be reviewed. There's been multiple changes on them based on the recommendations and concerns on it. I think a lot of it is just clarification. What was put out for the minimum standards and rules and regs. Uh that is boiler, that's just a document that um is pretty standard across airports of Pueblo size and larger. And the there needs to be some clarification on some of it. And it has been clarified. There's a few examples of you know, hour limits for flight instructors that possibly isn't worded correctly that has gone back and been fixed to make more sense. And once it is, we're like, oh, we agree with this. This this does make sense. So the next step is this is these are all on the agenda. The the fees honestly, we haven't referred to the

Mayor, Heather Graham 27:39

20 years since we've raised the fees at the airport.

Brian McCain 27:41

But uh but that's one that there's no comment on it. And also, I guess to preface this, the the this was asked for by the airport people. And another reason why this is important, we're investing a lot of time and money in the airport right now from the millions of dollars in the terminal renovations to the EAS contract is coming up for bid again, I think mid-next year. You're gonna see that process start in September-ish, depending on what the federal government does. Um, but economic development. So when we grow this airport, the AMT school, for example, when you don't have these minimum standards, when they're non-existent or these rules and regs, how can a company come to the airport and ask, well, what are your rules and regs and minimum standards? That's literally the first thing they asked. When we went through this EAS process, the last go-around where we we received the the DAC breeze applied for, I forget there were seven of them. Um that is their first question. We need to see the minimum standards and the rules and regs.

Haley Sue Robinson 28:46

So this is an update to all those things.

Brian McCain 28:48

Not only walking into the terminal, you're walking into the 70s, but walking on the flight line, you're walking in the 70s with the rules and regs. So this needs to be updated specifically for economic development out there because I am not going to bring my company in to build a warehouse to ship things or a mechanic shop with our AMT school to work on these multi-million dollar planes at the Pueblo airport if we don't have good minimum standards, rules, and regs. And that's why this is so important. But the next steps, it will be in front of council on Monday. There will be time for comment from the people at the airport, and we'll see what happens from there.

Haley Sue Robinson 29:28

Great.

Brian McCain 29:30

And I can say that usually at an airport, this is just an administrative fix, so they update them yearly. But being that they're so old, it's you start from scratch. So this is why it was important to bring it in front of a council and also to be transparent about it. But generally at an airport, this is just an administrative thing. They sit at the airport director, the city, or whoever controls the airport sits around and says, we need to update this, we're gonna update it. There you go. And there's no comment, no anything. You just update it to be with the times. And unfortunately, we are not with the times out there with any of these things.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:06

So we're gonna get with the times.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:07

To be determined.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:08

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:09

Okay, we gotta wrap it up.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:10

Great. Um

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:11

Next

Local Events And Sign Off

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:12

meeting's here.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:12

Uh one upcoming event tonight, Tuesday, June 7th, is a presentation for the Starburst Award with uh Pueblo Parks and Rec at the Slab. Uh the award ceremony is uh tonight at 6.30 at the project site, Elizabeth Street Parkway, aka the slab, at 2709 North Elizabeth. Free and open to the public. Also, we have the District 60 Summer Musical this week, Wizard of Oz, July 10th, July 11th, both at 7 p.m., and Sunday the 12th at 2. You can purchase tickets here at Memorial Hall. Cost is 23, and premium seats is 33. And we're just gonna wrap.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:51

Okay.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:52

Um thanks so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.