Members Present: Don Brown, City of Louisville; Carolyn Cutler, City of Lafayette; Bette Erickson, City and County of Broomfield; Doug Brown, City of Longmont; 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

Bette Erickson, City and County of Broomfield, said the new event center and senior center projects are on schedule. They recently had a Staff Appreciation Day.

Ken Lenarcic, Town of Jamestown, reported the town will hold a big event on July 4^th including a parade and music.

Carolyn Cutler, City of Lafayette, told members that the council sponsors One Lafayette which funds non-profits. A wine festival and auction will be held June 17 to raise funds. The council has started discussion regarding a redevelopment project for the old Wal-Mart/Albertson’s site. They have hired a consultant and will do some visioning to determine what the public wants. Perhaps this will become a sort of lifestyle center. They created a Latino Advisory Board and a Youth Advisory Committee. They are also studying curb-side recycling.

Lisa Skumatz, Town of Superior, said they have begun the process of implementing their Parks and Open Space Master Plan including a citizen survey and public process. They hope to have this on the fall ballot. The Trustees held a retreat and had a visioning meeting regarding the Town Center. There have been various openings including construction on some new townhomes and the bridge opening will be held tomorrow.

Mark Ruzzin, City of Boulder, reported that the Memorial Day weekend with Bolder Boulder and the Boulder Creek Festival was a big success. They have made several open space purchases, including a conservation easement with Boulder County to eliminate development on the east side of 95^th and protect a heron rookery. 29^th Street is close to completion and the Home Depot store is doing very well. A 16-plex movie theater will break ground soon. There will also be redevelopment of the Whole Foods/Barnes & Noble shopping center in conjunction with the Transit Center. He thanked those who attended the Youth Risk Behavior Forum and said it was very positive. Boulder has adopted a zero waste resolution and a plan to reduce greenhouse gases. The city will have a .01% one-year sales tax increase on the ballot for funding to complete the fire training center by the Boulder Reservoir. They are organizing an Immigrant Advisory Board to help get this under-represented group involved and their voice heard.

Doug Brown, City of Longmont, said Longmont is in the finals for the Civic League All American Cities. They had a violent week recently, but the police department and GRIP kept things in check, preventing more violence and possibly a gang war. They received their Fiscal Impact Study draft and have a good idea of how various types of development will affect the operating budget. There will be a Swooping Contest held with skydivers. They are preparing for an Education Summit and an Economic Summit.

Don Brown, City of Louisville, reported that the new Community Park at the south end of town is open and the dog park is extremely popular. The library should open in late July and they are working on a redevelopment plan for the old library that would include retail and office. The summer street fairs will start soon. The pedestrian bridge over US 36 will be a great advantage for citizens. They are focusing on redevelopment northeast of King Soopers. They are creating a Business Retention and Development Committee. Money Magazine recently named Louisville as #5 in their top 10 cities and they were recently rated by Frommer’s as the #1 place to raise a family. Citizens are concerned about the proposed gas compressor station.

Ben Pearlman, Boulder County, handed out a quick-look report on the Boulder County spring survey. It looks like growth and transit are important issues to the citizens and trails and renewable energy are also high on the list. There is less support for a library district.

Lisa Skumatz moved to approve the April 5, 2006, minutes. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Commissioner Will Toor presented a final Executive Summary. A small group met recently to discuss where to go from here with this information. They also took a look at a county-wide trails plan and considered the survey results. The survey shows that the public believes transit is the big answer to easing traffic congestion. The group felt there was broad support to put this issue on the ballot with a proposed .02 sales tax for the Transit Plan and Regional Trails. This would result in roughly $5.8 million for transit and $1.3 million for trails annually. The group discussed whether to sunset the tax and believed that would be the best plan, with the sunset date a couple of years after FasTracks implementation. At that time, it could be re-examined.

Commissioner Toor would like to make presentations to the various municipalities by the end of July so a decision could be made whether to put on the ballot in August. Tim Swope, Boulder County Transportation, presented the trails component. Commissioner Pearlman told members to contact Tim with any feedback on the trails.

The Consortium discussed whether they should endorse the ballot issue but determined this would not be appropriate until a ballot issue is official.

Jane Uitti, Boulder County Commissioner Staff, reported that a committee has been working on research to determine how a Regional Library Authority could be formed and what the costs would be (see attached). There was general discussion on the topic. Carolyn Cutler thought that the issues related to users from Broomfield and unincorporated Boulder County should be addressed. She also believes it is important to frame to the public what the problem is. Don Brown stressed that the issue is to find ways to maintain existing services, not expand them. He recognized Boulder County’s unique role in that they have held off on retail, thus generating tax revenue in the cities and towns, but the flipside is that the city provides services for them. He also commended Jane for her excellent work.

Commissioner Pearlman mentioned that perhaps if small victories between municipalities could be made to solve this issue it would provide some momentum. For example, the development of Anthem will have a huge impact so perhaps it would be an option to bring Broomfield in. He advocates starting small. Bette Erickson agreed that Broomfield should be involved and encouraged the group to talk to their libraries.

There was discussion regarding funding. Jane Uitti told the group that if a city/town has a library, other libraries cannot charge users from that city/town to use their library, so that limits reimbursement/payment types of agreements.

Mark Ruzzin agrees that starting small is the way to go since there will be a lot of other issues on the ballot this fall. If the group starts small, and builds a track record, perhaps this can get to the point where it can go to the ballot collectively.

Lisa Skumatz said Superior was working on a survey and they can include a piece to see where Superior wants to go with this

Michelle Sipe of the Lafayette Library, said the problem is complex but there are a number of people in Boulder County who are not included in any library system and it’s beneficial to focus on them. She told the members that one way to start small would be to enhance their reporting abilities. Currently, libraries are providing services to un-represented people but they can’t use those numbers on any reports. Numbers are used for grants and many other purposes. There was discussion of an IGA. In order for the libraries to be able to recognize the numbers of outside users, there has to be a legal entity. Commissioner Pearlman will ask the county attorneys to look into this and get in touch with the library working group. Don Brown suggested convening another library working group once they have the legal information and see what they can bring back to the Consortium.

Dickey Lee Hullinghorst reported that a group met in May and had a good brainstorming session but didn’t reach much of a conclusion. They did agree on a few next steps:

Look at FasTracks project and TOD to come up with principles for revenue stabilization and develop guidelines

Each municipality bring a property to the table to discuss how it might be part of a revenue stabilization/sharing scenario

The group decided to look at several models. Ben Pearlman and Carl Castillo will work on ways to define our unique goals and needs. There hasn’t been time to do much follow-up yet.

Don Brown believes it’s a critical issue. Boulder County could be precedent-setting and he thinks the Consortium should continue with this effort. Lisa Skumatz felt it was a very positive meeting. Mark Ruzzin agreed and thinks this should be a long-term dialogue. He said Boulder is forming a Revenue Stability Task Force to work 12-18 months on this issue. It would be very easy to keep the Consortium apprised of their discussions and discuss opportunities for collaboration.

The Consortium further discussed that the municipalities in Boulder County have a great deal of trust for each other, making this more practical to pursue. It is obvious in other areas that this type of trust is not too common. There will be an update at the next upcoming meeting

A roster of members who have been designated by their city or town was provided to the group. There was announcement of a few more designations. Mark Ruzzin thought the group should decide when and how often to meet. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst told the group that we are still trying to designate the four representatives from energy and environment, four representatives from the business community and two representatives from the residents-at-large. The appointments should be geographically diverse. She asked that any suggestions for these members be sent to her and a final list will be e-mailed for Consortium approval.

The next regular meeting is set for August 2 at the Boulder County Courthouse.