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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20200728 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 28, 2020 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilmembers Richards, Mesirow, Mullins and Hauenstein joining via video conference. CITIZEN COMMENTS: Denise Oberman: Ms. Oberman said she is a resident of California and summers in Aspen. She commended council for their commitment to public safety and health. She is addressing the mask requirement and compliance and wanted to comment on a related item having to do with public safety on trails and in parks. She said everyone 10 years and older should be wearing a mask. There should be some sort of compliance mechanism. Education was a failure in California, and she doesn’t want to see replicated here. Mayor Torre asked her about which trails specifically have been a problem. She said Hunter Creek, Smuggler and the Ute have all been pretty bad. Justine Cunningham: Ms. Cunningham said she is a scientist and toxicologist who works on viruses. She said this virus is readily and highly contagious and transmitted through the air and touch on surfaces. Regarding the trails, she has been surprised by the degree of negligence. The trails become very narrow and challenging when passing people. This is a win win for all of us to try at this time to extend an effort of wearing our face coverings. She says people are not wearing the masks at all. She said that aerosol transmission can occur outdoors as well as indoors. Lee Mulcahy: Mr. Mulcahy said he is a citizen in Aspen who votes here. Ed Snowdon is a whistleblower living in Russia. This virus is harmful and we need to remember this from a perspective of a free society. The destruction of our rights is permanent. He is grateful for many things. He encourages council to seek out another path so this mask ordinance doesn’t force him to wear a mask in his own front yard or neighborhood. He doesn’t want to go get his mail with a mask on. The Rio Grande trail is huge, and he doesn’t want to have to wear a mask when he’s biking into town. Five years ago, a private home was destroyed in Greenwood. The federal court denied this family funds to fix the home and the supreme court won’t hear the case. There are a lot of unconstitutional things going on and mentioned his case with APCHA. Toni Kronberg – Ms. Kronberg complimented the city on the new street scapes and said there should be a design contest amongst restaurants. The one-way street in front of Wheeler, is now a lot safer. Steamboat and others have seen their tax revenues come up, so kudos to that. Kudos on the marathon work session last night. Excellent job. She mentioned the Galena Plaza and the open space. She said open space should be open to the sky. Mayor Torre told her to send her comments via email and please attend the work session regarding Galena Plaza. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS: Councilman Hauenstein said that Lee’s comments about Snowdon are not germain to tonight’s comments. There are documentaries that document what he did and how our individual freedoms are under attack from our own government. Everyone should watch and become informed about Snowdon. We need to be cognizant of this. It’s a balancing act with the COVID situation between freedom and public safety. We are not trying to take freedoms away. It is vitally important that we guard against the loss of our freedoms. We at the council table are so conscious of this. He was at a gathering on the beach earlier and people in Maine are sharing all the same concerns as we have back in Aspen. All 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 28, 2020 emails he read today said they wanted a face coverings ordinance passed. We are all dedicated to our health and safety and it is not a political statement. Councilwoman Mullins thanked Torre for his comments about stress. She has seen more confrontational behavior on trails and in grocery stores, etc. The unknowns create a lot of stress and anxiety. She’s been proud of the people in Aspen so far, but she wants to stress that we need to keep having patience. Your good day is someone else’s worst day. Be aware. It’s unprecedented and a social experiment. Denise, thank you for your public comment regarding the trails. She hiked Lost Man trail this past weekend and it was one of the most beautiful hikes taken in years. The wildflowers were beautiful and it helps clear your head and you can come back somewhat renewed. We will get through it. Councilwoman Richards dittoed the appreciation for our citizens. These are stressful times and likely to last a lot longer. She doesn’t want to be the wet blanket on optimism, but there are professionals saying to close the country back down again and others saying masks are the new normal. We all like to think this will go away. The more fatigue we have with this, allows us to indulge in magical thinking. A real danger in the fatigue of the pandemic, is the desire to rip the mask off, etc., but we can’t go there. The freedom to be healthy is important right now. Councilman Mesirow agrees with the others and said there needs to be a balance between liberties and collective safety. He’s been going back and forth on the mask mandate. Thinking back to the meeting about banning firearms on city property, and said he’s been guilty of looking at the mask issue from a certain perspective. The fear that this engenders is a real thing and has an effect on mental wellbeing. He has the pleasure and dread of running his first Audi Power of Four this weekend. Mayor Torre said we are still doing really well in our efforts. Cooperation, collaboration, some relaxation is needed during these difficult times. He’s chatted with people in restaurants and retail and said it’s a real added challenge to deal with all of this on top of it. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Sara Ott said there will be a new public health order this Friday from Pitkin County and there will be the removal of the 10 min exemption. Anytime you’re within 6 ft of someone, you should have on a mask. Groups should be 10 people or less for informal gatherings. She mentioned a data analysis team, which is building capacity to narrow in on trends and data and she saw some reporting today. The county is doing a great job on the more tangible items. The county is reporting that the average of new cases per day, and this week is lower than last week, which is a little bit of good news. Our other counties are going the opposite way right now, and she will follow up with county manager to talk about trails regarding ticketing and warnings. She said tonight on the consent agenda, is the MMOF grant and asked that council please just consider accepting the grant itself. We will come back for a full conversation on funding at a later date. BOARD REPORTS: Councilwoman Mullins said she went to the CORE meeting last Thursday for Ward and it was their retreat, which held a lot of info. Councilwoman Richards mentioned that Club 20 will have a meeting with their board of directors for the ballot in November. Councilwoman Mullins said she would be happy to sit in for Rachel on a meeting. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 28, 2020 Mayor Torre said ACRA met this morning and discussed the census. We still have work to do. We also discussed what the off season is going to look like this year. Board of Health met last week and there were changes to the health order, group sizes, 10-minute limit, etc. CONSENT CALENDAR: Councilwoman Mullins made a comment regarding Resolution #057, and thanked John Krueger and his team. They continued to go after grants and did a good job. We are approving this tonight, but it’s not the final step. It helps the city enormously. Councilman Hauenstein also commented on Resolution #057 and encouraged people to watch the work session on this. He said what is planned for this intersection is a huge improvement. Councilwoman Mullins motioned to approve the consent calendar; Councilwoman Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes, Torre, yes. ACTION ITEMS: Ordinance #12, Series of 2020 – Mandatory Face Covering Zone City Attorney, Jim True, explained the Ordinance to council. He said last night council voted to approve with amendments. He has drafted language that may be acceptable to at least four members of council. There is an interest to have a mandatory zone that is less than the entire city boundaries, and he has different versions to satisfy all options. Councilman Hauenstein noticed there wasn’t a section on exercise. Mr. True said there wasn’t a consensus, but he expected the conversation to occur. He did include an exception for automobiles and people with family members. Councilwoman Richards said she is taking a hard look at boundaries. She doesn’t think exercise should be an exemption. She wants this to be as black and white as possible. She would suggest an end date of November 4th. Councilman Mesirow said we should add molly Gibson Park which has been very active throughout quarantine as well. Mayor Torre said he is fine with keeping the zone as tight as possible. Councilman Hauenstein moved to adopt Ordinance #12, Series of 2020 with the amendment of zone 2 including Heron Park, Newberry Park and the Highlands area, and a November 4th end date; Councilwoman Richards seconded. Councilwoman Richards clarified the commercial center and transit center of Highlands. Mr. True said Newberry Park is already in the zone and we would only be adding Heron Park. Mr. True showed the red lined version on screen for council and clarified the stipulations. Councilman Mesirow said he really doesn’t have an opinion on exercise, and he’s not supporting it at this point. He said he exercises every day and lives within the zone and for that part of his run, he will wear a mask and this seems reasonable to him and a reasonable request of others. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 28, 2020 Councilwoman Mullins’ goal was to pass a much more restrictive ordinance, but after reading Richard’s notes on enforcement and numerous citizen comments on the subject, she will support the smaller zone. It’s important that we move forward with this and bite the bullet. She supports the amended zone. She said staff should move forward coming up with a proposal and get ready for Friday activation. Trish Aragon explained the road markings for tourists coming into town, so they are aware of our new mask law. Mayor Torre described the base of Aspen mountain to the river, the corridor running from Aspen street to Original and then the Highlands base area as being within the zone. Mr. True said this includes all right of ways of both streets as well. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. All in favor, motion carried. Mayor Torre said there will be a commencement date of Friday and termination date of November 4th. Councilwoman Richards motioned to adjourn, Councilman Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. All in favor, motion carried. ______________________ Nicole Henning, City Clerk