HomeMy WebLinkAboutInformation Update 091322AGENDA
INFORMATION UPDATE
September 13, 2022
5:00 PM,
I.Information Update
I.A Work Session Follow Up Memo -City Council Critical Goal – Design Direction on
Burlingame Early Childhood Education (ECE) Center
I.B Work Session Follow Up Memo - West End Traffic Summary
I.C Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Internal Update
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FOLLOW-UP MEMORANDUM
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION
MEETING DATE:August 22, 2022
FOLLOW-UP MEMO DATE:August 25, 2022
AGENDA TOPIC:City Council Critical Goal – Design Direction on
Burlingame Early Childhood Education (ECE)
Center
PRESENTED BY:Jennifer Phelan, Development Manager
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:Mayor Torre, Councilmembers Ward
Hauenstein, Rachael Richards, John Doyle,
Skippy Mesirow
______________________________________________________________________
WORK SESSIONDISCUSSIONSUMMARY: Staff provided background on the project and
an overview of how the site programming was developed, where concepts advanced to two
designs: Hillside (separate childcare building and housing building with surface parking) and
Streetside (combined childcare and housing building with surface and structured parking).
Staff also highlighted the public outreach undertaken for the project (open houses, Aspen
Community Voice, CoA 2022 Community Survey). Staff requested direction on which
concept to further to schematic design.
1. Topic:Which design concept should progress to schematic design?
Council majority consensus: Continue development of the Hillside concept to
schematic design.
2.Topic:Childcare demand was discussed and interest in understanding what the
current level of need is and what it will be over time.
Council majority consensus: Provide more data on childcare capacity needs.
3. Topic:Somewhat related to understanding the need for additional capacity,
questions were raised on how to staff the facility and the parameters around
development of housing at Burlingame beyond the existing development cap
allowed in the subdivision.
Council majority consensus: Provide more information on staffing needs for the
facility and the process to increase the housing unit cap.
4. Topic:Discussing the site plan, council still showed interest in the development of
multi-family residential as part of the project, recognizing that there is a density cap
for the subdivision that would need to be amended.
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Council majority consensus: Continue development of multi-family housing to
schematic.
NEXT STEPS: Staff will be working with the design team and Design Advisory Group to
further the Hillside concept to schematic design. Schematic design is anticipated to be
ready for council review in November/December. This section outlines next steps for staff
and Council on the topic(s) described above.
1.Staff is directed to research and quantify the additional need/demand for childcare
capacity now and in the future.
2.Staff is directed to outline the staffing implications of the facility.
3.Staff is directed to provide more detail on the process to engage the HOA in any
density increase for housing units at Burlingame.
4.Staff will continue to look at high level options to value engineer the project and
weigh the costs vs. benefits related to those decisions (for example getting to net
zero vs. highly efficient, etc.).
5.The design team will continue to develop multi-family housing for schematic
design.
CITY MANAGER NOTES:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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WORK SESSION SUMMARY MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: Trish Aragon, P.E., City Engineer
Pete Rice, P.E., Deputy City Engineer
Mike Horvath, P.E. Senior Project Engineer
Scott Wenning, P.E. Project Manager
THROUGH: Scott Miller, Public Works Director
MEETING DATE: August 22, 2022
RE: West End Traffic Calming and Traffic Evaluation
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION:
Residents of the West End neighborhood have contacted City of Aspen elected officials
and staff regarding concerns about vehicle traffic volume, vehicle speed, and general
pedestrian and bicycle safety in the neighborhood. Staff have evaluated the concern in
accordance with the City’s Neighborhood Traffic Calming Policy. In October 2021, Council
directed staff to contract with a third-party traffic engineering consultant (Fox Tuttle
Transportation Group) to develop a traffic study for outreach and decision -making
support.
The evaluation in accordance with the traffic calming policy did not recommend the
installation of additional physical (infrastructure) traffic measures. The recommendation
from the traffic study concludes that any physical traffic measur es installed in the West
End neighborhood would either be ineffective at reducing traffic volume or would
significantly impact Main Street traffic congestion; therefore, staff and Council should
implement projects to reduce westbound Main Street congestion. The results and
recommendations from the traffic calming policy and traffic study were presented during
the August 22, 2022 work session. Staff asked Council for direction about the potential
next steps:
1. Develop measures for West End streets that would increase traffic on Main
Street
2. Limit interim actions until Entrance to Aspen can be implemented.
3. Develop Main Street capacity or efficiency concepts
COUNCIL DIRECTION:
1. Council members did not support the installation of traffic control measures to shift
traffic patterns away from West End streets due to the negative impact to Main
Street.
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a. Some council members supported traffic control measures that could help
minimize some of the traffic impacts in the West End neighborhood, such
as four-way stop signs, crosswalks, and speed limit reduction. Staff will
review measures and present options that may increase safety without
impacting Main Street traffic congestion.
2. Council members supported existing projects to manage traffic and mobility in
Aspen such as the Entrance to Aspen project, parking management, transportation
demand management, and pedestrian and bicycle masterplan projects .
3. Council supported the development of Main Street capacity or efficiency concepts,
specifically focusing on Cemetery Lane traffic light efficiency.
NEXT STEPS:
1. Communicate to West End residents that Council did not support physical traffic
control measures to move traffic volume out of the West End neighborhood.
2. Staff will review measures and present options t hat may increase safety without
impacting Main Street traffic congestion.
3. Staff will continue to support and enhance progress on durable traffic management
projects such as Entrance to Aspen. Staff will communicate these steps to the
West End residents and to the community.
4. Staff will develop Main Street capacity or efficiency conceptual projects for
Council’s input.
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INFORMATION ONLY MEMORANDUM
TO:Mayor Torre and Council
FROM:Tessa Schreiner, Sustainability Manager
Patrick Quick, Strategy & Innovation director
THROUGH:Alissa Farrell, Administrative Services Director
Sara Ott, City Manager
CC:Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
Courtney DeVito, HR Director
Denise White, Communications Director
John Barker, Sr. Management Analyst
Linda Consuegra, Asst. Police Chief
Shannon Buckner, Executive Assistant
MEMO DATE:September 9, 2022
RE:Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Internal Update
REQUEST OF COUNCIL: This memo is informational only. No Council action is
requested.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this information only memo is to update Council on the City’s
grassroots diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts throughout the City of Aspen. For
more information and definitions around diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts, visit this
diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility glossary.
BACKGROUND: In 2020, the City of Aspen began focusing on DEI at the individual and
department level. These efforts began with DEI training, hosted by external facilitators,
and expanded into staff-led peer learning groups and department-level DEI initiatives.
These grassroots efforts have fostered a groundswell of interest and support at the
department level, with a third of city departments working organically on DEI activities
including integration of DEI outcomes into North Star Compass Plans (work plans). As
interest and DEI focus within departments has grown, staff identified a need for expanded
action across the city. As a result, DEI objectives feature prominently in the Agency
Director Team’s (ADT) Compass goals for the upcoming year. The ADT is defined as
senior leadership that reports directly to the City Manager.
In 2021, the City of Aspen finalized the development of the city’s organizational values:
Innovation, Stewardship, Service and Partnership. Inclusivity language was intentionally
woven into the organizational values behavior statements to reinforce community and
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belonging. Current DEI work happening at the city is rooted in these values which
naturally transitions to and directly impacts the Aspen community.
Stewardship: Investing in a thriving future for all by balancing social, environmental, and
financial responsibilities.
Innovation: Pursuing creative outcomes, grounded in Aspen’s distinctive challenges and
opportunities.
Partnership:Our impact is greater together.
Service:We serve with a spirit of excellence, humility, integrity, and respect.
By weaving inclusivity language as an authentic beginning, the city is naturally
progressing internally within the culture which translates to an external benefit.
Additionally, DEI work brings several other benefits to the organization. Organizations
that prioritize DEI initiatives and outcomes see increased workforce engagement and
productivity, a greater sense of belonging, a more extensive talent pool for recruitment,
higher retention and lower turnover, reduced conflict and improved relationships,
enhanced authenticity and trust, greater innovation, and better decision-making.
Integrating DEI into the fibers of an organization is considered a best practice in both the
public and private sectors.
DISCUSSION:Presently, the City of Aspen is engaging in multiple congruent efforts and
activities around DEI across various departments which leads to growing meaningful
connections and services in the entire Aspen community. This memo provides Council
with an overview of the activities and progress on these initiatives, displayed in categories
including the agency director team’s DEI-related Compass goals, training, the city’s equity
fellow, peer learning groups, the city’s community engagement framework, and the city’s
internal DEI committee. While the foundational DEI work continues to grow internally,
the DEI landscape and lens is naturally expanding into the community through staff
interactions, communications and engagement, programs, and development and
refinement of policies and procedures, etc.
ADT DEI related Compass Goals: As these grassroot DEI initiatives percolated
throughout the city, the ADT team recognized the progression and determined the
necessary next step of incorporating formal goals within the ADT Compass plan. In 2022,
ADT set five DEI-focused goals for the group to achieve over a two-year period.
Goal 1: Review and recommend outcomes from community empathy and listening
sessions.
Progress to date: In July of 2021, the City of Aspen hired L’Ancla, a Latina/o
founded, Latina/o-led and Latina/o-community serving firm focused on helping
organizations listen to the community, to conduct an ethnology study for the
City of Aspen with the intent of informing the city’s equity and community
engagement work. The ethnology study was designed to compare and analyzes
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the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them and the
community.The impetus of this work originated as a way to gather data to inform
the city’s climate action and energy efficiency work, with the goal of then
expanding the work, city-wide. During this planning process, the team
identified two groups of people who are currently underserved by the city’s
energy programs: Low-income households and Latina/o community members.
Staff realized that in order to engage with and serve these populations, the city
must first develop relationships, listen, learn and understand what needs they
have and what barriers currently exist to participation.
The L’Ancla ethnology study focused on understanding the Latina/o
community in the upper Roaring Fork Valley. The L’Ancla team, who are all
native Spanish speakers, combined person interviews, group interviews, and
existing data sets into one final document. These personal stories continue to
help staff better understand the Latina/o population and the diversity of
experiences that exist across the community, especially about their
experience interacting and receiving services from local government. Moving
forward, the co-creation and participation approach serves as an additional
tool for all city departments to tackle complex community challenges where all
community members, with a broad outreach and connection to marginalized
or disadvantaged groups are not only included, feel that their voices are
heard and feel a sense of belonging.
Goal 2: Develop and implement city-wide DEI education and training programs, under
the comprehensive, city-wide learning and development plan.
Progress to date: Currently, DEI education has been incorporated into the
new hire orientation training and within the new hire supervisory training.
Additionally, the city manager’s office and the human resources department
have begun the process of developing a comprehensive city-wide training
program where the focus will be the long-term transfer of knowledge and
cultural change management. This training program will include DEI training
and has begun with the Manaus training, discussed in more detail under Goal
5.
City-wide DEI training provides an opportunity for DEI language and practices to
permeate through the City of Aspen which then translates to the community through
services, policies, and a DEI city lens.
Goal 3: Adopt a framework to complete a city-wide DEI gap analysis.
Progress to date: The gap analysis will comprehensively review and
analyze the city’s current state and performance as it relates to DEI and the
city’s gaps in terms of DEI. This would allow for the development of a formalized
critical path forward to address organizational gaps and areas for improvement.
Various consultants have been interviewed and identified and the analysis is
slated to be conducted in 2023 after key staff completes equity training (see
Goal 5 for more information on this training).
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Goal 4: Increase the City of Aspen’s score on the Municipal Equity Index (MEI) to 80%
or higher. Conduct an analysis and develop a proposal for community and employee
engagement in an update to the non-discrimination ordinance.
Progress to date: The City of Aspen is one of 506 cities across the nation,
and eight cities in Colorado, rated annually by the Human Rights Campaign
Municipal Equality Index (MEI). In cooperation with the internal DEI
committee, staff are currently reviewing municipal codes as well as City and
County services to ensure the embodiment of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the City of
Aspen. Increasing the Municipal Equality Index will protect all city residents,
workers, and visitors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity. Currently the City of Aspen has an average score of 67 of
100 points on the MEI Scorecard (increased from 61 in 2020), with a goal of
continuing to increase Aspen’s scorecard to the ensure the protection of all.
The City of Aspen scorecard can be found here. In addition, the City
Attorney’s Office is in the process of developing a proposal for updating the
city’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance.
Goal 5: Enroll 20 key employees and/or board and commission members and/or council
members in September hybrid equity action training.
Progress to date: In 2021, staff engaged in a lengthy process to select an
impactful DEI training in which City of Aspen staff and Council members could
participate. This training, called the Equity Action Project, is offered through
Manaus and is an interactive capacity-building program that focuses on
individual anti-racism work in addition to organizational race equity and
inclusion; the ultimate goal of the program is to support the development of
more equitable organizations. A cohort of 20 City of Aspen staff has been
selected to participate in this 7-week training, which is underway.
Advanced Racial Justice Training
In 2020, a group of key staff participated in the Interaction Institute for Social Change’s
Advanced Racial Justice Training.Topics of the training included unpacking racial equity,
identifying white supremacy culture, and creating a pathway to action. This training was
one of the first cross-departmental DEI co-learning initiatives, which helped create a
foundational vocabulary and understanding of racial justice on which to advance DEI work
by incorporating a DEI perspective in service and policy development.
Equity and Community Engagement Fellow
In 2022, the City of Aspen was selected as one of five cities to host a fellow through the
Urban Sustainability Directors’ Network’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellowship
program. Working with the Climate Action Office during the summer, the Equity and
Community Engagement Fellow’s work has focused on creating an enhanced process
and framework for engaging members of the Latina/o communities in the Roaring Fork
Valley. Building off of L’Ancla’s work the Fellow conducted community listening sessions
to gather feedback from the Latina/o community as it relates to their interactions with the
City of Aspen.
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GARE Membership
The City of Aspen is a member of the Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE), a
national network of governments working to achieve racial equity and advance
opportunities for all. Members of GARE make a commitment to achieve racial equity,
focus on the power and influence of their own institutions, and work in partnership with
others. The Alliance supports jurisdictions in racial equity work and provides a space and
support for governments and staff to learn from each other and collaborate on community
solutions.
DEI Peer Learning Groups
Beginning in 2020, various City departments have conducted peer learning groups
focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion learning. These voluntary, grassroots learning
groups have helped create a shared language and understanding, developed specific
action items and initiatives, and create a space for inquisitive dialogue among teams.
Recently, more departments have expressed interest in starting DEI peer learning groups,
and this initiative is being considered as part of the bigger picture ADT goal to create city-
wide training and education programs.
Community Engagement Framework
The city's Communications Strategic Plan outlines a goal to enhance external
communications to increase trust with the community and the city's decision-making
process. This year, the Communications Office initiated a project to develop a consistent
citywide Community Engagement Framework (CEF). On track for completion in 2023, the
CEF will serve as both a guiding document to be used as a resource and a living
document to be used as a how-to manual for the city’s community engagement. Reaching
diverse audiences where they are and through channels they trust and prefer is inherent
to successful community engagement. Staff will include DEI best practices in the
development of the CEF so that everyone in the engagement process is valued,
respected and heard.
Internal DEI Committee
For the past few years, the city’s DEI initiatives have been supported by a voluntary
internal DEI committee. This group is comprised of staff across diverse city departments
and helps to coordinate education and training opportunities, support the ADT’s new DEI
goals, and analyze and advance new initiatives.
Grants Program
The city’s grants program is an example of a program committed to improving DEI
outcomes through incremental adoption of DEI measures at grantee organizations.
Applicants will be introduced to the city’s commitment to DEI with language below as a
part of their grant applications. Education and training will be provided to applicants to
help ensure that all grantees are comfortable addressing DEI-related questions in their
applications.
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The City of Aspen is committed to incorporating the principles of Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion incrementally into its grant criteria. As an ongoing process, the city does not
currently require specific DEI measures to be in place at grant-seeking organizations at
this time, but attentiveness and effort towards improving DEI outcomes (both within the
grantee’s organization and through the community served) is expected. For the purposes
of the city’s grants, relevant definitions are below:
Diversity: The intentional variety within a specific collection of people that takes into
account intersectional elements of human difference, identity and lived experiences, with
a focus on groups often subjected to structural forms of discrimination, exclusion, and
oppression.
Equity: Just outcomes for all.
Inclusion: Full and meaningful participation.
Conclusion
The City of Aspen recognizes the importance of advancing initiatives and outcomes in
diversity, equity, and inclusion work and has made considerable strides thus far with the
intent to elevate the human experience for all within local government. In consideration
of these advancements, staff recognizes the need for the City of Aspen to use a DEI lens
across all city activities and services, departments, and projects in order to achieve
equitable outcomes in the community. Staff is working on creating a plan to amplify and
centralize these efforts, which includes a gap analysis, consistent DEI training across the
city, shared language, and a strategic framework for next steps.
As the next phase within internal work process develops, the Aspen community will
continue to see incrementally, the DEI work grow more and more into community
activities, services, departments and projects. Through an increased focus on DEI,
community engagement plans, policies and procedures, and programs are increasingly
focused on eliminating obstacles and working towards creating an environment where
the entire community feels a sense of belonging, and ensuring all voices are heard and
valued.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:
Environmental/climate work and equity work are two sides of the same coin; as we
continue to witness and prepare for the impacts of climate change locally, regionally, and
globally, the communities that will be most impacted by these changes are low-income
communities and communities of color. Similarly, in building programs and policies to
mitigate the worst effects of climate change, an equity lens is imperative in order to ensure
the ability to simultaneously reach the Aspen community’s climate goals and create
equitable outcomes for all communities.
CITY MANAGER COMMENTS:
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