[BoulderCouncilHotline] Metro Mayors Caucus annual retreat

[Weaver, Sam]

Fellow Council Members and HOTLINE followers,

Last Saturday (1/12/2019), I attended the Metro Mayors Caucus annual retreat.  Mayor Jones was in transit, so I attended in her place.  It was a great event, and below are some of the highlights:


  1.  Floyd Ciruli, a prominent political scientist, gave us his analysis of the 2018 election results. I will spare you the national and state analysis, except to say that one of the biggest disappointments for local governments was the defeat of Prop 110 (mobility infrastructure) at the state level.  Of the 6 regional counties in the metro area, Denver (57%) and Boulder (55%) supported this measure.  The other 4 counties were around 45% in support.
  2.  After a goal-setting exercise involving the ~25 mayors (or stand-ins like me) the three big agenda issues for the year were 1) social services including mental health and homeless services, 2) affordable housing, and 3) transportation and mobility.
  3.  The afternoon discussion centered on options for regional mobility, and what actions to support with the failure of ballot measure 110.  After much discussion, the group seemed to support exploring a 0.5% sales tax increase for the ballot, which would raise ~$350,000,000 each year for roads, bridges, multi-modal improvements, and supplemental public transit.  The consensus seemed to be to explore using the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) to receive and disburse the funds to cities and counties. DRCOG currently serves that function at a much smaller scale, and so the project analysis infrastructure and project management expertise is there, but would need to be scaled up.  Next steps are probably to raise this issue with state legislators and explore the possibility of authorizing legislation, potentially followed by a regional ballot measure.  Also, DRCOG would need to agree with this approach, and be willing to scale up to a much larger regional mobility funding role.

Please reach out with any questions about the retreat.

All the best,

Sam Weaver
Mayor Pro Tem
Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:weavers at bouldercolorado.gov>
Phone: 303-416-6130

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20190115/280a2dc2/attachment.html