[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: CML conference report

[kohls at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues,

One more report, this one on the recently held annual Colorado Municipal League (CML) conference.  This can be brief since, well, not much really happens at a CML conference.  I attended only part of it, two days and a single night, and George K as well as some of our staff attended various portions.

As usual, the most (only?) important part of the conference was the schmoozing, which I did lots of, particularly with mayors/councilmembers from the Denver metro area, and also with CML staff re some upcoming issues.  There was somewhat surprising interest about our municipalization efforts, and, at least from those I spoke with, strong support for our making some progress on that front.  I also had some interesting discussions re Jefferson Parkway.

As for the sessions, well, the less said the better, although to be fair I only got to attend a few of them.  I "moderated" (which is to say introduced the speaker) a couple of sessions, one an "advanced" talk on how to fix suburban zoning codes; it had the potential to be intriguing, but as usual spent most of the time with introductory material.  The lunch talk/Q&A with Gov. Hickenlooper was good; nothing startling, but he's always amusing and thoughtful.  And I know that at a transportation session the new CDOT head publicly stated that US36 was their top priority, which is terrific news.

I didn't run for the CML Board this year, both because Boulder really has no chance and because there were good candidates.  I think of the folks I voted for on behalf of Boulder all but one were elected.  I may try again next year, but it depends on who's up and who's running.  While the Board is important, the CML Policy Committee pretty much determines CML's legislative positions on almost all issues, and I've taken a very active role in that group.

--Matt