Members Present: Vince Buzek, City and County of Broomfield; Doug Brown, City of Longmont; Carolyn Cutler, City of Lafayette; Ken Lenarcic, Town of Jamestown; Ben Pearlman, Boulder County; Mark Ruzzin, City of Boulder; Lisa Skumatz, Town of Superior; and Staff Dickey Lee Hullinghorst and Sheree Stroud

Ken Lenarcic, Town of Jamestown, reported that Colleen Williams won the Pacesetter Award for environment and conservation. They have done the preliminary assessment on town hall renovation. Voters previously approved a mill levy to preserve it as an historical site.

Lisa Skumatz, Town of Superior, told members that their Comp Plan process is proceeding and they should adopt a revised plan soon. Superior worked with Boulder County on an open space purchase. They have been mapping parcels with regard to wildlife and view corridors, water, etc. and considering how they might designate each parcel.

Carolyn Cutler, City of Lafayette, said that the four new council members just finished a 16-hour training related to city functions. The council will hold a retreat and goal setting session on March 8 that will include a facilitator for the first time. The city staff is working hard to ease the new council members into their new duties. One challenge will be decisions regarding policies on pit bulls and other dogs. Affordable housing and water appear to be areas of great interest to citizens.

Mark Ruzzin, City of Boulder, reported that the CU president has moved from the Boulder campus. They are still looking for a new site for the fire training center and hope to resolve that issue soon. Boulder is also deciding how to fund their portion of the Household Hazardous Waste facility and is working with Boulder County on how to do that. Boulder’s portion was a large sum. The council held a retreat and goal setting session and will emphasize exiting priorities. Senator Allard attended a Town Hall meeting. The first major store to open at 29^th Street was Home Depot. Something that the Consortium may want to consider working on is hate issues. CU and the Boulder Human Relations Commission are working on this issue. Tom Eldridge will also receive a Pacesetter Award.

Vince Buzek, City and County of Broomfield, said that the new sports teams just announced their names and logos. They will be playing at the new event center that recently broke ground. The hockey team is the Rocky Mountain Rage and the basketball team is the Colorado Fourteeners. Broomfield is working on transit oriented development and seeing a lot of development such as condominiums.

Ben Pearlman, Boulder County, told members that the county is working with CCI on legislation that affects the county. There are some difficult land use items coming before the Commissioners this year.

Lisa Skumatz moved to approve the December 7, 2005 minutes. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

The members decided to take this up at the next regular meeting on April 5.

Tim Swope, Boulder County Transportation, told the Consortium that the Transit Enhancement Plan is a three-month project. The Regional Transit Committee will meet March 8 to review the plan and a final draft will be presented to the Consortium at the April meeting for Consortium review and comments prior to approval.

An update was presented by the consultants, David Evans and Associates. The goals of the enhancement plan include building on the strengths of the existing transit system, identifying new transit systems, integrating various systems to maximize effectiveness, increasing awareness of transit systems, and developing an implementation plan. Handouts with more detail are attached.

Lisa Skumatz asked if a stakeholder meeting will be held in Superior. Vince Buzek said there was good response from the Broomfield meeting. The consultants hope to involve all municipalities in this process. Mark Ruzzin asked about financing mechanisms. The consultants will look at currently available sources, other innovative sources, and how to leverage funds/partnerships. Mr. Ruzzin told the consultants he hopes the overall plan will coordinate with plans that are already in place by cities or towns, including financial impacts.

Aaron Maripol, Thistle Community Housing, and John Pollak, Housing and Human Services for the City of Boulder, addressed the Consortium regarding the task force. Mr. Maripol explained that there is recognition that affordable housing is a regional issue. Short-term goals are partnerships between and counties and municipalities of which the HOME funds issue is just one piece. The long-term goal is to create a task force that looks at the problem more broadly. There have been delays in the creation of a task force due to the HOME funding issue; however that should be resolved one way or the other within the next month. It conjunction with that, it is very important to have a formal housing plan in place. This will make this region’s voice more effective.

Doug Brown wondered if there was any work being done with Weld County. Mr. Pollak said it was a good topic to bring up with Weld County Commissioners but something that would probably need to be worked on incrementally.

Lisa Skumatz asked what type of representation would be needed on the task force. The speakers responded that it has a timeline of six months or so and the goal is to have policy maker representation from each community. Mark Ruzzin thought it made sense to wait for an update on the HOME funds issue before appointing the task force. The group agreed, so this will be on the April agenda.

6. Discussion: Where Do We Go from Here?

Commissioner Pearlman provided some background on the goal setting session held by the Consortium in March of 2005. From that session and follow-up discussions, several Consortium priorities emerged, including energy, libraries, tax revenue sharing, and TOD/FasTracks coordination. The Consortium decided at the December meeting to hold one work session per topic. The Energy Work Session is scheduled for March 1. Doug Brown, Mark Ruzzin, and Lisa Skumatz volunteered to be on the planning committee for the Energy Work Session.

Dickey Lee Hullinghorst gave an update on the Regional Library issue. The working group was meeting with a technical assistant but felt they couldn’t work successfully with that assistant. The project was put on the back burner. Ms. Hullinghorst’s suggestion per a discussion she had with Don Brown was for each city and town to designate a staff person who could work on a research project -- setting up a series of scenarios with very rough figures -- so that there could be a starting point for discussion. Once numbers are researched, the library working group can further develop more specific scenarios to bring to the table. Carolyn Cutler believes it is important to include at least one librarian in the research phase. Doug Brown thinks they should answer questions such as what are the opportunities, processes, and problems in forming a Regional Library District. Ben Pearlman agreed with a statement by Tom Eldridge some time ago – the Consortium needs to look at this topic and either solve it or let it go. He thinks Ms. Hullinghorst’s proposal is a good one – this would give the group some sense of what the options are and whether anything might be workable. Ms. Hullinghorst asked each municipality to give her the name of a contact person to get the needed numbers and then a technical committee will put together a report.

Mark Ruzzin suggested that revenue sharing be the next work session. Commissioner Pearlman suggested that session be held May 3 and a planning committee should convene. Commissioner Pearlman, Doug Brown and Karen Imbierowicz will be on the planning committee. It was agreed that the work session will also include TOD/FasTracks Coordination discussions.

The next meeting will be April 5 at the courthouse.