City Manager Accountability Meeting Summary
Editor’s Note: City Council held a workshop on July 8, 2024, for the “City Manager’s Update to Council”, that is not available online. The meeting was expected to be one of four quarterly meetings to hold the City Manager accountable for the projects and priorities set at the annual retreat. Holding the City Manager accountable is arguably the single most important function of the City Council, since the manager runs the city. The discussion was not held in a regular meeting, nor was it broadcast. A few dedicated residents watched, recorded and reported for the rest of us. Thank you! This article is a summary of that meeting that turned out to have no accountability measures at all. However, there was important information about the budget, school closures, Foothills Animal Shelter, and the unhoused.
Guest post from Joan from Lakewood
*Minor edits to content made 7/15/2024
I personally attended the workshop meeting that was a pilot meeting held without any video or hybrid capacity.
This was an hour meeting held before the regular meeting of the Lakewood City Council. I believe this program was instigated because there are supposed to be quarterly reports by the City Manager as to what is happening in the city.
The City Manager, Kathy Hodgson gave a report with a list of topics that she said were top of mind.
She gave a preview of the budget, which will be approved in August. She addressed to city employee vacancies, a long time employee with the City Manager’s office and the Director of Community Resources (Kit Newland has retired- Amber Thill is Interim Director) which should be filled by the end of the month.
There was a brief mention of the slash/recycle project.
There was an update on the Jefferson County school closures. There are five school properties in Lakewood that are being disposed of. Supposedly these properties should be sold at market rate. This contradicted what was told to the Vivian neighborhood at their Information meeting. Hodgson told how this disposal is not as easy as Jeffco Schools imagined. There was a school property in Westminster that had in its deed that if the school was closed, the property would revert to the City of Westminster. The city is planning on demolishing the building and creating a park. (this is what the neighborhood of Vivian elementary would like to see happen. I suggest they do a deep dive into the history of that property.)
Hodgson then mentioned a project they were looking at located at 20th and Quail. This is a piece of property currently owned by Denver Water that was previously a YMCA camp. I believe there is talk about assuming ownership of the space.
There was a scheduled tour for the city council members on 7/9 to view the recently approved purchase of the land to expand the Lakewood maintenance buildings. This is a big project and will require more funding in the years to come. It seems that it will take 5 to 10 years to complete this project.
Kathy Hodgson then addressed that she’d received a memo from the Jefferson County manager on the fact that the county would no longer be supporting Foothills Animal Shelter. This is not a done deal and there is conversation and negotiation happening around this situation.
The other update was about the Navigation Center and Recovery Works operation during renovation. Because the navigation center must remain as an emergency shelter, no construction can be done between 1 October and the end of April. So the renovation must occur during more months and that leads to the navigation center being closed for the summer months of 2025 as construction cannot happen with the building being occupied.
The other Lakewood news about the unhoused and the City Council is the development of a municipal code for sleeping units. This is not a zoning change so there will be no hearings on this topic. They are looking for a site to develop palette or small houses for the unhoused. The first reading of this code change will happen In the future (tentatively scheduled for 8/12 for the first reading and 8/26 for the second reading).
The last issue addressed was an operational issue about busy intersections and window washing. Kathy Hodgson introduced a sign and discussed some of the solutions that DrCOG, City of Denver, and City of Arvada have arrived at. There was some discussion and it was decided that city Council members would review the draft sign and give feedback by Monday 7/15.
There was a very little time for questions by the City Council members, and it was noted that this was a good start on communication.
I believe that they will use this format next quarter with a little more time scheduled.
I personally did not understand why this report was not made in the regular meeting that followed, and why there was no video recording of this meeting.
Here is the disclaimer -as I was taking personal notes and might have gotten some details wrong please consult with your city council members if you have any questions.
Recording of meeting (thank you Cathy!):
Recording is hard to hear. Unedited transcript available here