[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: My very short opinons for tonight's Council meeting

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Weaver, Sam


Fellow Council members,
 
I will not be able to attend either tonight’s or Thursday’s Council meeting, so wanted to give you a few short opinions on where I stand on a few of the subjects of these meetings.  I apologize for my absence.
 
1)     
South Boulder Creek Flood mitigation initial proposal – I feel that staff has done a great job taking into account all of our directives in their current favored proposal.  I strongly support moving forward with beginning the discussions with all relevant stakeholders that we would need to work with to implement staff’s very strong proposal.  This is a matter of life and property safety in our community, and I think making progress on the flood mitigation work should be among the highest priorities for our public works staff.
2)     Occupational Privilege Tax – In principle, I support an occupational privilege tax, if it is linked to mitigating some of the impacts of Boulder being a regional job center.  Clearly transportation and housing are two of these major impacts, and one of the advantages of an OPT is its very small taxation impact on employers and employees (about $50/year per employee).  However, I am not sure there has been enough time to determine exactly what such a tax would be used for within the transportation realm, nor to take robust business community input on the subject.  A community-wide Ecopass for all employees who work within the City would be my first priority for revenues from such a tax, and the studies for that are not yet complete.  I support a robust discussion of this subject, as it could have very positive impacts on our public transportation infrastructure.
3)     Area III service area expansion – I strongly agree with the staff recommendation that we do not consider any service area expansion study for this BVCP update.
 
All the best,
 
Sam Weaver
Member of Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov
Phone: 303-416-6130