HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-07-22 City Council Study SessionSTUDY SESSION AGENDA
CITY COUNCIL
CITY OF WHEAT RIDGE, COLORADO 7500 W. 29th Ave. Wheat Ridge CO
March 7, 2022
6:30 p.m.
This meeting will be conducted as a virtual meeting and in person at 7500 West 29th Avenue, Municipal Building, if allowed to meet on that date per COVID-19 restrictions.
Some members of the City Council or City staff will be physically present at the Municipal building for this meeting. The public may participate in these ways:
1.Provide comment in advance at www.wheatridgespeaks.org (comment by noon onMarch 7, 2022)
2.Virtually attend and participate in the meeting through a device or phone:
•Click here to join and provide public comment
•Or call +1-669-900-6833 with Access Code: 816 2520 8775
•Passcode: 911076
3.View the meeting live or later at www.wheatridgespeaks.org, Channel 8, or YouTube Liveat https://www.ci.wheatridge.co.us/view
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to participate in all public meetings sponsored by
the City of Wheat Ridge. Contact the Public Information Officer at 303-235-2877 or wrpio@ci.wheatridge.co.us with as much notice as possible if you are interested in
participating in a meeting and need inclusion assistance.
Public Comment on Agenda Items
1.Community First Foundation
2.Race and Equity Task Force Update
3.Staff Report(s)
4.Elected Officials’ Report(s)
Memorandum
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Patrick Goff, City Manager
DATE: February 26, 2022
SUBJECT: Community First Foundation
ISSUE:
Community First Foundation has been connecting donors and innovative Colorado nonprofits since 1975. As the community foundation serving Jefferson County, they are committed to connecting ideas, people and nonprofits so that all Jeffco communities have the opportunity to thrive. They help donors with philanthropic planning, support nonprofits with grants and
resources, and together, build resilient and connected communities.
Community First Foundation makes good happen in three ways:
1. They help donors and businesses across the state with giving;
2. They provide grants and support community building in Jeffco;
3. They are the creators of ColoradoGives.org and Colorado Gives Day.
In 2021, Community First Foundation provided grants to the following organizations in Wheat Ridge:
•Outdoor Lab Foundation ($2,500)
•City of Wheat Ridge ($2,500)
•Carnation Festival ($5,000)
•Jefferson Center for Mental Health ($170,465)
•Advancing Warriors Intl ($18,620)
•Localworks ($15,000)
Kelly Dunkin, President/CEO of Community First Foundation, will provide an update to the Mayor and City Council on the Foundations current purpose, vision, values and work in Jefferson County.
ATTACHMENTS: 1. Community First Foundation presentation
Item No. 1
ATTACHMENT 1
Our Purpose
To Make Good Happen
Our Vision
All of Jeffco is thriving.
We connect ideas, people and nonprofits to make good happen.
Mission: How we accomplish our work
Purpose
Ideas People Nonprofits
++=
Mission
Values Our values are
foundational to
everything we do.
They guide our daily
interactions with
each other and our
community.
They serve as
anchors and
connect our actions
to our ideals.
Be
empathetic Keep
learning
Help each
other thrive
Do the
right thing Make something
better,today
Donor Services
Giving Tools
Donor-advised Funds
Employee Giving
Corporate Sponsorships
Corporate Giving Funds
ColoradoGives.org
Educational events
Nonprofit Services
Capacity Building
Grants (Jeffco)
Endowments
Long-term Designated Funds
Fundraising tools
ColoradoGives.org
Colorado Gives Day
Educational events
Access to unique partnerships
We Connect People, Nonprofits and Ideas
IDEAS
Fundraising
Benefits
•Access to investment expertise
•Create efficiencies
•Access to planned giving advice & services
•Advice on complex gifts
•Incentive grants
Where we aim to have impact
2021 grants madein Wheat Ridge
Outdoor Lab Foundation ($2500)
City of Wheat Ridge ($2500)
Carnation Festival ($5000)
Jefferson Center for Mental Health ($10,000)
Advancing Warriors Intl ($18,620)
Jefferson Center for Mental Health
($160,465)
LocalWorks ($15,000)
$9.4 Million in 2022
(250% increase from 2019)
$6 Million in 2021
Making Good Happen
Do you work with or know a nonprofit?
Do you know a business who may want to partner?
Are you a donor who wants to give back or give more?
Nonprofit
Share what you are seeing in the community
Apply for a grant
Enroll on ColoradoGives.org
Participate in Colorado Gives Day
Open an Endowment or Long-Term Designated Fund
Individual Giving
Support a nonprofit on ColoradoGives.org
Be a philanthropist –open a Giving Account
Ask your company to participate in
corporate giving
Organizations &
Businesses
Support a nonprofit on ColoradoGives.org
Be a philanthropist –open a Giving
Account for your company
Ask your company to get participate in corporate giving
A preview into work we are planning
Career Impact Bonds
Computer User Support
Housing
Study underway –report late spring
Impact Investing
Pay for Success: Fostering Opportunity
Metro Denver Nonprofit Loan Fund
How can we work together?
5855 Wadsworth Bypass, Unit A | Arvada, CO 80003
CommunityFirstFoundation.org | 720.898.5900
Thank you!
Find Us Online @CommunityFirstFoundation
Memorandum
TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH: Patrick Goff, City Manager
FROM: Marianne Schilling, Assistant to the City Manager
DATE: March 7, 2022
SUBJECT: Race and Equity Task Force Update
ISSUE: The Race and Equity Task Force co-chairs will be presenting to City Council an update of the progress that has been made to date and the plan moving forward.
PRIOR ACTION: City Council appointed the Race and Equity Task Force on February 8, 2021. The Task Force presented the last update to City Council on August 2, 2021.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
N/A
BACKGROUND: The Race and Equity Task Force has been directed to carry out a thorough review of City
policies, services, and ordinances to identify policies and practices that may contribute to
discrimination. The Task Force will provide updates to City Council and will report recommendations, including ways in which success will be measured toward becoming a more inclusive and responsive community.
DISCUSSION: The Race and Equity Task Force has been meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month since March 25, 2021. The meetings were first entirely virtual and have now moved to a hybrid approach beginning in June. The volunteer chairs have also been meeting on Mondays following the Task Force meetings. The Chairs are Terry Gale, Jenny Snell, and Jeff Richards.
The group spent the first several months getting organized and gaining information about the City of Wheat Ridge prior to determining the priority list of topic areas for the group to review. Additionally, Dr. Dwinita Mosby Tyler and Monica D. Williams facilitated the meetings focusing on race and equity and how the group might structure itself, focus efforts, define goals
and outcomes, and overall mission. In doing so, the Task Force developed an Equity Lens as a
Item No. 2
Staff Report – Race and Equity Task Force Update March 7, 2022
Page 2
protocol for evaluating policies, programs, practices, and decisions which will result in equitable outcomes and a more welcoming and inclusive city. The group also worked to develop meeting bylaws and reviewed the City Charter.
Task Force Overview Since the update to Council in August 2021, the Task Force has continued to use its meeting time by spending the first meeting of the month meeting with City staff and learning about specific topic areas of interest. The second meeting of the month is used as a working session for the
three focus area groups to work on their research. Below is the comprehensive list of staff
presentations to date, with Economic Development, City Clerk, Human Resources and Public Works scheduled for the upcoming months. Staff Presentations
Date Name and Title Topic
4/22/21 Patrick Goff, City Manager Gerry Dahl, City Attorney City overview
5/13/21 Sara Spaulding, Communications
Manager/PIO
Bridget Dvorak, Digital Media Specialist
Communications, Outreach and City
Engagement
5/27/21 Jeff Hirt, Senior Neighborhood Planner Ashley Holland, Community Engagement Specialist
Let’s Talk Program
6/10/21 Gerry Dahl, City Attorney City Code/Charter
8/26/21 Darryl Guadnola, Division Chief Police
10/14/21 Chris Randall, Municipal Judge Municipal Court
11/4/21 Rebekah Raudabaugh, Homeless Navigator Homeless Navigation Program
12/9/21 Scott Cutler, Senior Planner Community Development
1/13/22 Rana Razzaque, Arianne Rivera, Dave
Kollar
Jeffco Public Schools
2/10/22 Zach Lovato, Manager of Parks, Forestry and Open Space Parks and Recreation
Staff Report – Race and Equity Task Force Update March 7, 2022
Page 3
Work Accomplished Focus Areas
Together, the categories from the City Charter and the defined areas of interest yielded this list of priorities and topics. From there, the first three areas for review were determined by the Task Force and are listed in bold.
• Election
• Process
• Court/Judiciary
• Human Resources
• Property/Development
• Tax/Money
• Infrastructure
• Police Department
• Religious Freedom
• Economic Opportunity
• Health (Mental, Physical, etc.)
• City Charter
• Homelessness
• Education Summary of First Three Topics Areas to Date
Court/Judiciary
The Courts/Judiciary Subcommittee met to address possible biases that may have directly or indirectly affected judgment, sentencing, and services offered to “everyone” within the Wheat Ridge community. The group looked at practices within the municipal court to assure fairness from a race and equity lens. They held bi-monthly meetings as a group and were able to meet
with a broad range of legal professionals with various backgrounds and expertise. The list
included; Shandea Sergent, Public Defender of the city of Golden; Brian Mason, Adams County District Attorney; Madeline Champ, Wheat Ridge Probation Officer; and Chris Randall, Wheat Ridge Municipal Court Judge.
Additional references for guidelines for this work includes: The observation of several Wheat
Ridge Municipal Court proceedings, a review of Wheat Ridge’s Municipal Court 2022 proposed budget, and the court-ordered class list, reading “Justice Derailed,” an ACLU of Colorado case study of abuse in the Colorado Court system. The group also participated in a Community DEI summit and a Jefferson County Criminal Justice Reform Virtual Town Hall meeting.
After carefully considering the possible biases that exist within our community, the subcommittee narrowed its focus and recommendations in order to address the following areas: Fairness in pre-trial procedures, reduction in recidivism rates, support structures around reintegration after incarceration, adding additional layers of reminders for adults and juveniles,
diversion, and restorative justice practices.
Police Department The Police Subcommittee is currently working to finish its review of the Police policies and its recommendations in the next week. This group broke the Police Policies down into five sets of
sections, effectively giving the initial five members equal page counts to review and compile
comments on. In the interim, one member had to leave the Task Force and that person’s
Staff Report – Race and Equity Task Force Update March 7, 2022
Page 4
assignment was taken on by another member. The final review document will include general areas of observed ideas and issues, specific
recommendations based on the Police Department policies and recommendations based on the
activities of similar groups in other cities that are doing similar work. This focus group will also dovetail its efforts with the two other subcommittees and provide recommendations that are common to all three focus areas.
Education The Education Subcommittee has been in contact and working with the schools that serve Wheat Ridge: Prospect Valley, Kullerstrand, Stevens, Wilmore-Davis, PEAK, Everitt, WRHS, Jefferson HS, and Golden HS. The subcommittee has five members, including a teacher and a JeffCo
student, so they felt well-equipped to work on this subject matter.
The subcommittee is currently working to finalize our report, which covers both individual school and district-wide work on the topics of everything from family services, addressing inequities in schools, mental health, transportation, and safe spaces for all. The subcommittee has
been able to access district-wide enrollment data, which is broken down by race, minority status,
and free or reduced lunch status. JeffCo schools has also supplied the group with some of their policy work around treatment of families and community, treatment of staff, treatment of students, and school safety.
This work has been impacted by the challenging climate the pandemic has created for all
educators and school staff, and the subcommittee is certainly most grateful to them for their time and dedication to their students in such a trying time. The group has gotten some great insights from the various school teams, and will continue to work with them as they are able to return to a more normal school environment.
Next Steps
Future Topic Areas The Race and Equity Task Force will soon be closing out the first three topics areas and
initiating the next three. The group has determined that the next three topic areas will be:
Property/Development, Health and Homelessness. The Task Force plans to return to City Council with an update once the next group of focus areas is reviewed. The goal is to finalize the review and present the report and overall
recommendations to City Council by late 2022.
The Task Force has also worked to develop a template for the final report to City Council, and they are continuing to build the report as they review each focus area topic. The recommendations for each topic will include:
• Summary of Research
• What’s Working
Staff Report – Race and Equity Task Force Update March 7, 2022
Page 5
• What’s Not Working
• Recommendations and Timelines
• Stakeholders Task Force Members At this time, the original task force group size has reduced from the original 20 members to
about 13 active members. This reduction is due to individuals moving out of the area as well as general attrition from meeting twice a month for one year. The Task Force is interested in re-opening the application process for individuals who may be interested in joining the Task Force to help to speed along the research and recommendation process.
The areas where the Task Force has lost members include:
• District I: 2 lost - 2 remaining
• District II: 1 lost - 3 remaining
• District III: 1 lost - 3 remaining
• District IV: 2 lost - 2 remaining
• At-Large: 1 lost - 3 remaining
The original direction from City Council was for the group to be 12-20 in size, so Council may provide direction to re-grow the group, or maintain the Task Force at its current size. RECOMMENDATION:
Staff is looking for direction on re-opening the Task Force application process.