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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.20221011 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 11, 2022 At 3:30 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Doyle, Richards, Mesirow, and Hauenstein present. City Attorney, James R. True, introduced the executive session. Councilor Richards motioned to move into executive session; Councilor Doyle seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Mr. True noted that they will adjourn downstairs to the Electric Pass room and will come back up to Council Chambers for the regular meeting scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. Council convened in council chambers at 5:12 p.m. Mayor Torre mentioned that the meeting started at 3:30 p.m., and this is the remainder of the regularly scheduled meeting. City Clerk, Nicole Henning, did another roll call with Councilor Richards, Hauenstein, Doyle and Mesirow present. Mayor Torre introduced officer Seth Delgrasso who introduced the new police officers to the APD. It’s not an easy job to become a police officer, so we appreciate their efforts. He introduced officer Leandra Michelsen who was an aviation structural mechanic who worked on the most recent Top Gun movie. He then introduced officer Adam King, was previously serving as a guidance counselor from Illinois. Mayor Torre proceeded to swear in the new officers. He said it’s his biggest honor as Mayor. CITIZEN COMMENTS: Breeze Richardson – Ms. Richardson said she is lending her personal support to an Aspen arts commission. Artists are key stakeholders in our community. Art is important; vision is important. She referenced Ordinance #19 regarding the WRETT usage. We have a renewed opportunity to invest significantly. Sarah Pletts – Ms. Pletts said she has been a performance artist and visual artist in Aspen for 45 years. She’s here to ask about WRETT funding. Her question for everyone is to close your eyes and remember a book/project/tv show that you loved when you were under ten when the spirit of you drove you. That’s what art does to us. There is a lot of talk about letting the spirit of Aspen go dim. She is asking for a 1/3 of the funds to go to the arts. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilor Hauenstein said they have been putting a lot of time into the budget. Our staff has been working on this for months. Staff has been working hard on this too and all departments helped put this into the creation of the budget this year. He thanked everyone. Councilor Doyle said in New Zealand, rainfall has caused snow to melt faster than usual. Climate change is a significant factor. It’s their warmest year for the third year in a year. They have underestimated global warming and are closed for the season and hit a new record high. Closer to home, it’s the 4th year of drought in the southwest. He is glad that our city continues to look at environmental concerns. 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 11, 2022 Councilor Richards said she has no comments other than she will be zooming in next Tuesday due to her husband’s surgery. Councilor Mesirow said he echoes Councilor Hauenstein’ s thanks to staff for work on the budget. He really found a lot of the commentary from Breeze and Sarah powerful. He read some quotes from them. There is an opportunity for a rebalancing, and our community would benefit. Mayor Torre asked him his show or book that he thought of, and Councilor Mesirow said the Berenstain Bears. Mayor Torre said he thought of the song, “You Are My Sunshine”. Mayor Torre said we all appreciate the arts and for the opportunity of moving that forward. We are doing it the right way and will be extremely inclusive about it. We will have to have a process which reaches out to the whole community. He said this is Homecoming week – Go Skiers! Tonight, is a soccer game at the high school and this Friday will be the Homecoming football game. Show up and support. AGENDA AMENDMENTS: Mayor Torre said there are none but noted that they will continue the executive session at the end of the meeting. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: City Manager, Sara Ott, said they’ve received a lot of comments since her column was printed in the Aspen Times regarding the entrance to Aspen. The first phase will be helping people understand the preferred alternatives. There will be open houses which will help everyone to have base information and figure out how to move this forward regarding the bridge. BOARD REPORTS: Councilor Doyle said he attended the Municipal League policy meeting last Friday. Issues discussed were childcare shortages. We are not alone in searching for employees. Councilor Mesirow had APCHA and said they are looking to share more compliance information with the community for transparency. There is a new write up with CORE about what they are up to. They are piloting a right sizing program which will start with 5 swaps initially. Councilor Hauenstein said CCLC had discussions on digitizing the application for the Saturday Market and would require some funding. The Aspen Sister Cities has a group of exchange students in Shimukappu. The exchanges are beginning to happen again after COVID. Mayor Torre said they had the UN Mountain Conference, which had the most in room energy. The delegates from all over the world were fabulous participants. He was extremely excited to see the actions that we and other councils have done with environmental leadership. He left the meetings feeling that people who make the changes will be from mountainous communities. It was a really interesting energy. Councilor Richards said people who are interested in owning units, should go to the Pitkin Housing Authority and put in your bid package. She listed off the available units. CONSENT CALENDAR: Councilor Doyle motioned to approve; Council Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 11, 2022 NOTICE OF CALL UP – 312 West Hyman – Phillip Supino, Community Development Director Mr. Supino introduced the item and said it’s a Chalet property. The applicant would like to do a modest remodel and a minor addition. There were no bonuses or variances given. Staff doesn’t recommend call up at this time. Councilor Hauenstein asked about tree removals. Councilor Richards said she supports the project and is not interested in a call up. Councilor Doyle said he supports it as well. Mayor Torre said there is no motion for call up. ACTION ITEMS: EOTC Preparation – Dave Pesnichek Councilor Hauenstein asked if it’s Mr. Pesnichek’s last meeting. He said yes and introduced Linda Dupriest comes to us from Glenwood Springs with 25 years of experience in transportation. Everyone is excited to have her on board. She will be full time after the October 27th meeting. It will be hosted here by the City of Aspen virtually and in person. He wants to get a roster so we can plan accordingly. All council members said they will be here in person. Mr. Pesnichek went through what happened at the last meeting and what they can plan for at the next meeting. Councilor Hauenstein asked if they needed another motion to go back into executive session. Mr. True said another motion would not be necessary since they continued the previous executive session and introduced the items again. _____________________________ Nicole Henning, City Clerk