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SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 30TH, 2020
At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the special meeting to order with Councilmembers Richards in council
chambers and Mesirow, Mullins and Hauenstein joining via video conference.
Mayor Torre said tonight we have social distancing in the room. Three out of the five council members
are participating from home and we have an abbreviated agenda this evening. We will take council
comments and manager comments on Ordinance #04. We have other questions and suggestions which
need to be discussed as well. He wants everyone to have realistic expectations and there is a
tremendous amount of desire by council to make some definitive decisions. We will figure out the
schedule for remaining items.
COUNCIL COMMENTS AND BOARD REPORTS:
Councilwoman Mullins said we met on Friday for RFTA and Ward was also there. The bulk of the
meeting was about service and going to phase 3 of a skeletal service. The vote was 3-4. 4 were for
curtailing all service but 3 of us were for the skeletal service. They were missing one commissioner, so it
did not pass. We are going to lock down everything as tight as we can and be stringent. She feels they
are an essential service. Many people who have no other means of transportation, but she said she saw
6 buses go by on Main Street today and not a single person on any of those buses. We will check back in
to see how the week has gone on Friday. She expects that all service will be curtailed in the end.
Councilman Hauenstein said that the concern is essential workers getting to their places of employment.
Now it’s gone 180 degrees for it being better for people to be in their cars as opposed to buses.
Ridership is down 80%.
Mayor Torre asked Councilwoman Mullins if the data Ward is using will be available prior to Friday’s
meeting and Councilwoman Mullins said yes and they may call a special meeting. She will get that
information and pass it out to council.
Councilwoman Richards said she’s wondering about the difference between right and right. She’s
wondering about a single bus run substitute for essential workers and what that number might be.
Councilwoman Mullins said that came up at the meeting. If you decrease the bus routes, you have more
people riding one bus and the distance rules are broken. The skeletal service could provide few enough
passengers per bus. Councilwoman Richards said she would continue to back that up.
Mayor Torre said that driver safety is paramount and priority #1. We need to look into PPE for drivers.
His personal view is the drivers are not anyone we should put in harm’s way. He doesn’t want that.
Councilwoman Mullins said the head of the drivers’ union was present and said they are willing to drive,
but having the passengers entering through the rear doors. RFTA has suspended all fares for the time
being as well. The rows behind the driver are blocked off.
COUNCIL COMMENTS:
Councilman Hauenstein said that behind the scenes we are doing all we can to work with the federal
government on funding, etc. He said this is worse than anything he has ever seen, and we need to brace
ourselves. Please stay optimistic. He has heard of tailgating parties on the mountain when people are
skiing up and he said to please ask these gatherings to disperse. This is for the health of our community.
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SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 30TH, 2020
Councilman Mesirow said this is a really difficult time for everyone. We should pause and offer some
gratitude to ground us and give an intention for the meeting. He’s grateful to be serving on council. He
told Mayor Torre that he has listened intently and has a huge heart and is doing a great job at keeping
us all connected. He continued on to give kudos to Ward, Rachel and Ann. He offered gratitude to the
community.
Councilwoman Richards said she can tell people are taking social distancing more seriously now. We are
in for a long haul and may be through the end of April.
Mayor Torre thanked his council and said everyone has been amazing over the last couple weeks, and to
see individual strengths; it is making us a better team in the long run. He wants to reinforce stay at
home protocols and distancing measures to stop the spread and said we all need to make smart choices.
We will talk about the city’s efforts for testing right now. We are still in response mode and planning
recovery. We’ve all been reaching out to local businesses. We are doing our best to look for recovery
efforts. He thanked all volunteers, and said lastly, as we start talking about long term planning, let’s
keep in mind, short and long term needs and long-term strategic planning. Thank you to the citizens
watching this.
CITY MANAGER COMMENTS:
Ms. Ott thanked the community for testing and the board of county commissioners on PPE resources. A
lot has happened since last week, and a federal stimulus bill passed, so she’s delving into this with staff
and professional associations. She has been starting some conversations with CCI and CML to have one
voice about how funding will be allocated. It’s a real merit to our community. You can encourage this
through your connections as well for a shared effort. She had a conference call with other town
managers and how we can work together. It’s going to take a whole valley. We have a long history with
being innovators and creating models here for other cities in the state. We will be in touch with all
council members soon about this. She said we should be resuming work sessions next week, so she will
be sorting through topics moving forward. Pete joined us and has been combing through numbers for
revised sales tax. She said we want to walk you through this, and she sent copies to everyone and is a
snapshot in time. The city is taking action quickly on its own spending and priorities.
Pete Strecker said the forecast at a state level, is that their assumptions are never right and things
continue to change. There is an assumption here, limited for local commerce. He has provided a month
by month snapshot of his vision for March, April, May and June. Starting in august, things will start to
come back contingent on travel and how comfortable people are. The overall, is that we will see effects
throughout the end of this year and by next December, we will be down 22%. The parks and recreation
department will be down a 4-million-dollar loss. On the second page of memo, it’s split out by industry
for most impact. Parks and open space is the most impacted department. We are looking at capital to
try and help out. Kids first also has needs for childcare, etc. Council needs to decide how much to scale
back on this. Hopefully this will provide some context. Nothing is absolute but is has some value.
Councilman Mesirow asked regarding these projected declines, if he is taking into account how federal
dollars will help and Mr. Strecker said there isn’t a pinpointed aspect and it’s going to be hard to tell.
You can assume there is some federal stimulus in here. Councilman Mesirow asked if the decline will
continue into the next year too and Pete said yes, you can assume that.
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SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 30TH, 2020
Councilwoman Richards thanked him and staff. She said there will be a belt tightening everywhere.
December would still be down about 22% in comparison to 2019. City sales tax will be cut by a 1/3 from
19 million to 12 million. Countywide sales tax will decline 4.4 million and lodging tax will drop by 1.6
million. The transportation fund receives tax support from city sales tax and lodging tax.
Councilman Hauenstein said they will have to look at changes in the budget allocations. He would like a
list of all capital projects for parks and recreation, so they can start thinking about it. He mentioned
marketing efforts with ACRA to work on getting tourism back here.
Ms. Ott said there are a couple things already started. She’s talking with parks and recreation closely to
put together some expenditure reduction plans. They are working on operation reduction cost planning
and will give them a week to put together their proposed plan. We will bring back adjustments in the
spring supplemental. We’ve been starting to pump the brakes already. She’s spoken to Debbie with
ACRA and they are getting ready for their marketing planning. We’ve started layoffs this week and
we’ve let go 55 of our part time employees this week. We have to look closely at what are the
communities most critical needs.
Councilman Mesirow thanked Ms. Ott and said she’s diligent and ahead of the curve. He asked Pete
what these numbers look like as compared to 2008. Mr. Strecker said we are at a level lower than in
2014 to give some metric and said the city always sets aside reserves.
Mayor Torre said council wants to be involved in test procurement and PPE procurement. The city is
ready, willing and able. Ms. Ott gave an update on the testing limitations and an update from the IMT.
Ms. Ott said ACRA and the city both have links to help with financial assistance at this time. Small
businesses should rely on ACRA right now for what they are providing. Councilwoman Richards pointed
out that a lot of the small businesses in town who aren’t ACRA members. Ms. Ott said that they are
currently giving help to all businesses.
Mayor Torre asked Skippy about volunteerism and Mr. Mesirow said that ACF matches volunteers with
where they can help. We are continuing to refine this and refocus. There have been many people who
have stepped up in the community to help out.
Councilwoman Richards mentioned older people needing help with getting groceries and medicine from
the pharmacy. We need people on the ground helping out with these things. Mayor Torre agreed that
there is a need for city resources and not just volunteerism, but also dollars.
Conversation continued around a task force.
Councilman Mesirow stressed the immediacy of the situation for some businesses in town and
suggested they may only have weeks left. Councilwoman Richards went on to mention the idea of
borrowing money from the Wheeler Opera House fund. She said it’s the only fund that has not been
impacted and she would like to borrow 5 million and set up funds in 5 buckets.
Mayor Torre said what we need is information on cause and effects and implications. He asked the
council if they are supportive of asking Sara, Pete and Jim to get these details for us and if these are
avenues that everyone is looking to support.
Councilman Mesirow said this is a great starting point. He asked for clarification on funds that aren’t
spent and Councilwoman Richards said there would be interest and all would be repaid.
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SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 30TH, 2020
Councilwoman Mullins said the wheeler fund is a legitimate fund but will decrease substantially over the
next few years. We don’t want to make this fund vulnerable, so we would end up losing it. She said she
does not really support using affordable housing funds for this since it fluctuates so much.
Councilman Hauenstein said we do have a precedence for borrowing from the Wheeler. It’s a benefit to
them because we will repay it back at higher interest. This is a valuable discussion for the task force, but
he supports fattening the pot.
Councilman Mesirow said he will remain open until he gets more guidance from Sara and Pete. He said
that using affordable housing funds is his last resort and would take a good argument.
Ms. Ott said we need some time to research this as you’ve asked for a lot so that is going to take some
work on our end. We need to run through some legal scenarios. In the interim, she would ask council
what types of services they are willing to slow down or stop in order to make this happen.
Mayor Torre said we will revisit this next Monday in a special meeting.
Councilman Hauenstein said that everyone on council should review our priorities from the retreat. He
said everyone on council should determine what projects and services we are willing to put on a lower
priority list.
Mayor Torre asked for a motion for Ordinance #04, Series of 2020.
Councilwoman Mullins motioned to approve Ordinance #04, Councilwoman Richards seconded.
Councilwoman Richards read the ordinance.
Roll call vote: Richards, yes; Torre, yes; Mullins, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes. 5-0 motion carried.
Councilwoman Richards motioned to adjourn, Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Mullins,
yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes; Hauenstein, yes.
______________________________
Nicole Henning, City Clerk