 The first order of business is the roll call and I think everyone is here except Sheila. Anybody else missing? She's excused. She's excused. She's on her airplane in the next call at the moment. Okay. Does anybody want to be chair? Who can everybody reach in their hands? I think Dave would be the next one to chair. Yeah, I think so. And are we ready for nominations or not? Oh, okay. All right. Nominations are open for a president. I know, right? We're the same guy that did it last time. I second it. I second it, yeah. Yeah. Because there are seconds about. You got it. Yeah. I got some over it. Yeah. Any discussion? Let me say I'm going to repeat my campaign speech last year. And Jeff said, yeah, you got it. Anyway, I think, I think that the role of an advisory board. I might have a little bit different view of an advisory board than most people did. I think an advisory board, there's two kinds of boards. There are cheerleaders, you know, or the staff of the agency, things and people, and you tell them how good their programs are and give them suggestions on all that sort of thing. But you're basically just supportive of the agency that you're on board to. And there's the other kind of board, which I think is very, and I think it's in line with the ordinance that we talked about last week. We need to be active as far as making recommendations, trying to influence policy, even trying to influence the legislation. And so I see, I try to make the board as active as possible. And that's where I'm coming from. And sometimes people think they're going to be a little bit too far. I've just got a couple of reasons to go out. But that's, so if you elect me, you'll be one of the same. I'm okay with that. Yeah, I'm good with that. I think that sounds exactly what we should be doing. All right. The nominations are closed. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Any objections? Vice President. You still have the crown. I think that art has done a good job. Why not? I appreciate it. But my reason for trying to get somebody else here, this is my last year. I'm on my sixth year. I don't want to be here for a few more months. And so what I'm saying is I would like to see somebody else that, not that there's that much to do as a vice president, except we can't make it or whatever. But I'd like to see somebody else, but I know that might be interested in eventually becoming a president. So I'd like to see if anybody else might be interested. Only to say that if there's a lot of new people on the board, and that doesn't prevent you from meeting the vice president, if you want to, it would be good training to be a vice president, because I'm not going to have time to even know it here. So, you know, if you want to do that, it would be a good way to learn about some of the things that we do. Do you have any interest in it? No, there's more. Good, excellent. How many others are interested? Is there anyone else that's interested in it? Any other people that are interested in it? I don't have those no more. Right. Are there any further nominations? All right, any discussion? I just want to say that I'll fully support what you talked about, what you've mentioned as far as the advisory board. I think that's exactly what we should be doing. Very good. And yeah, I'll fully support the whole board. Very good, very good. All right. Did I say nominations are closed? All right, all those in favor of belonging to the vice president say aye. Aye. You can put your vote. Abstentions, congratulations. I get the other ground. Yeah. All right, approval of the agenda. I have a question. Don't we also have to have a scribe secretary? No. I didn't either. As a matter of fact, I bought it up a few weeks ago. We needed a secretary and I checked the ordinance. President and vice president, am I right on that? That's my understanding. Other divisions on the city has a staff member. So I didn't know that. I would just like to say that along those rounds is seven of us attended the orientation. And at that orientation, it was said that staff are provided for advisory boards or a board member could do it. But I guess my thinking is if we're expected, according to what all of the information that's said during the orientation to be active and be aware and, you know, be open to everything that's in the meeting and pay attention, it's hard to take minutes at the same time, right? So I think it's a little difficult. Last year, I really can't speak for Beth. You know, these yellow ones are the sort. No, not today, neither. The one that we had before was Ruth. They were both secretaries and there was just too much, I think. I think I don't know. They didn't say that, but I have a feeling that was part of the reason the designer was just too much. Full of liars and responsibilities. So anyway, that's actually that's good. I hope you can understand who is taking the minutes. Is that Amy? Yeah. Hi, I'm Amy. I don't know. And we appreciate that. Yes, thank you. You guys take such excellent minutes, I tell you, it's just like I can read through the minutes, it's just like I was there again. You took your hand on the computer. Pardon me? I said, can you take your hand on the computer? All right. So are there any additions to the agenda? Any minutes? Okay. Hearing none, I'll come and move to approve the agenda. I'll move. Second. Seconds. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Approved over the previous months and minutes. I assume everybody's had a chance to give that stuff this morning. This morning? No. I forgot to send them last night. That's why I didn't see it yesterday. I thought I was just behind on my email. They're there. I was wondering if it would be possible for us to start Under New Business A, just to allow Amy an opportunity to kind of do a quick presentation on our I Recreate Senior Recreation Program. Okay. And I'll start to go catch up on a lot of the work. If that's okay. Sure. So we didn't approve the minutes, right? No. I've read through them. I'll make a motion for 15 minutes. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All right. We will move to item A, Senior Recreation Program, over. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Do we think it might be a little better to turn the lights off for this or are we okay with the model or everything? Yeah. Thanks a lot. I can't see it. Okay. And for those of you in the front row. You ready? Yeah. Seven? Yeah. Four? Um-hmm. Well, it's good to see everybody this morning. My name is Amy Hodge. I'm our Senior Recreation Program Supervisor. Been here with the City of Longmont. So it's crazy. About six months. It feels like just got going yesterday. So very excited to be here. Be a part of this program and talk to you all a little bit today about what our Recreation Programming Division does, as well as some of the things that maybe kind of are within our scope of care, but we can help connect and create resources for. So as you know, we have kind of two main divisions here at our center. We have two main divisions here at our center. We have the Recreation Programming side, and we have our Supportive Services side. I understand Brady's probably going to be coming in soon to speak a little bit more to what our Supportive Services division does, but today I wanted to tell you a little bit about my background, what we're doing here for our programs, and some of our goals for the future. So when we talk about how I got here, I'm originally from Missouri. I've been in Colorado a little over six years, and during my college years at Northwest Missouri State, I was a softball player through my sophomore year, then decided to go out with me, and that was the end of that. So that also kind of changed my perspective on what I wanted to do with my career. My mom was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis right around that time, and that really made me shift from an athletic training mindset to working with special populations to let them enjoy their quality of life through the end of their life, and a lot of that can come through later. So I completed degrees in Corporate Wellness, as well as therapeutic recreation. We'll talk about a little bit more here in a little bit, with a minor in gerontology. I always loved working with the aging community. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up, and kind of approached this role as everybody's my grandparent, and I want to make sure they're receiving the same care that I would have given to my grandparents. From Northwest, I actually started the first five years of my career working in gerontology. I actually started the first five years of my career working in geriatric forensic psychology as a recreation therapist. I learned a lot not only about aging, but about people. People generally just have a need they're trying to get met, and how can I help you meet that need or overcome barriers to meet that need? After working in forensic psych, I moved down to Kansas City and worked at Truin Medical Centers, which is a level one trauma center in urban Kansas City. Worked in the acute psychology department as a recreation therapist. Started working for Employee Wellness part-time in that time, teaching group fitness and personal training. Transitioned to their corporate wellness side of things within the hospital, and ran our Employee Wellness Program for a 5,000 member employee population. So kind of having both the client-facing perspective as well as the staff perspective figured out corporate wellness was not my jam, and moved over to Community Rec, which is where I have been since 2017 during that time completed my master's degree in kinesiology within a business and sport management. And then started working for the City of Liberty, which is a lot like Longmont. It's about the same size. Think of like a Arvada, Longmont, about 100,000 people, and worked with their senior services division as well as their health and wellness areas, which really got me into the aging side of community work. And it's just part of what brought me out here. Moved out here in early 2018, was recruited to help them open their rec center. For them, I ran their athletics division, as well as their fitness and general programming. I was living in Greeley at the time. As you know, that's a bit of a drive for a Greeley estus. So I wanted something a little closer to home, and the perfect opportunity came available with the Eden Area Partner District. It was aging and fitness, which are my two loves. Got to bring them together, and as we've eaten for about five years, continued with them and took over their general recreation, as well as athletics program, in accordance with aging and fitness, and became a supervisor for that entity. And then we came here. As I was working and eating, I learned more and more. I wanted to be in the aging community, and this role allowed me to bring that. It allowed me to bring not only the leadership skills that I acquired together, but also to come to a community that is very focused on our aging population, and provides a wealth of opportunities. I don't know if you all know, there's a few things going on here. More so than really anywhere else I've seen. So it's great to be a part of it, and that's what has got me here today. In our field, it's super important to keep up to date on trends in the industry. Things are always changing. What might have been the case three years ago may not be the case today. So we want to ensure we're keeping up to date, and I encourage my team to do the same, actively involved in the Colorado Parks and Rec Association, and this year I'm actually serving as the board chair for their active aging programs and services division. So get to interact with professionals around the state in aging. Hear what they're doing at their centers. Learn about what the challenges in the industry are. Anything trending we're seeing. So it's a really great way to stay connected and help promote our aging community as well. I'm also a certified therapy and recreation specialist, and these individuals are licensed professionals who work with special populations and individuals with disabilities. I don't know if you know, aging is its own special population. So that falls with an degree, and I use it day in and day out here at our center. I also sit on the National Exercise Trainer Certification Board for their personal training and group fitness certifications. I'm a certified person trainer, group fitness instructor. I teach people how to perform CPR at AED in verse A as an instructor, a wellness coach, and I'm a 500 hour registered yoga teacher with a 100 hour emphasis on aging. I don't know if you're seeing a trend here. It all comes back to aging and wellness. These are things that are very important to me, and I want to make sure I'm doing my part to stay up to date on what's happening in the industry, how we can help support our senior population, as well as make sure that we're staying within our scope as professionals. Everybody came in so far, now that we're through the boring stuff. So NCTRC is the governing body for therapeutic recreation. This really dictates what we can and cannot do with our license. And the NETA is the National Exercise Training Association. Yoga Fit is the entity that I went through for yoga. And all of these are NCAA accredited. So in order for these agencies to maintain and CCA accreditation, they have to follow safety guidelines, science guidelines, industry guidelines, as well as social and cultural awareness guidelines. So excited to be a part of companies that actually keep those things in mind when we're looking at how we provide services. And security members. So recreation programming as a whole is designing, staging, and delivering leisure opportunities by intervening in social interactions, manipulating and creating environments where people feel welcome in a manner that maximizes the probability that those who enter will have the experience they see. Has anybody participated in programs here? I would hope so. Yes. Those are experiences, right? Our goal is to create those experiences based not only on the foundations of what recreation programming is, but hearing from you. What do you all want? And how can we make those things happen? We looked to enrich lives through quality recreation services. That's assessing what works well, what doesn't, and continually evaluating. Creating community connections I think is a huge piece of what we do. We want to have people feel like they're part of something. We want people to learn what is available in our community and help them build new relationships. And then create an environment where individuals have the opportunity for educational, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being. So therapy and recreation is kind of a special entity. We have a CTRS, Ariana, that we share with the Rec Center. I don't know if you all know her if you don't. We should get to know her. She and I both are recreation therapists. And the goal of recreation therapy is to purposefully utilize leisure in an effort to help people not only have those experiences, but overcome the barriers that may keep them from getting to those experiences. These can be in clinical settings. These can be in community settings and in here. But we want to help people create a sense of wellness identity. Think about where you are in your life. Have you ever told yourself, well, I used to like to do this. But now I do this because of X. Well, how can we get you back to doing what you used to like to do in a way that meets you where you are right now? We use recreation-based medical treatment to help people reduce depression, stress, anxiety and recover from physical and mental abilities, build confidence and socialize. And with that, Ariana has created a new part of our program here called the AIR program. You may see it in our spring go. And that stands for aging, adaptive and inclusive recreation. Ever. Much easier to remember, right? So, as I mentioned earlier, aging is a TR special population. How can we create experiences so that people can be met where they are, not feeling overwhelmed or underwhelmed and provide some opportunities for people who maybe felt like they weren't at that level to be able to participate as a whole? How can we create those experiences? And that's the goal of our AIR program. So our scope of care, we start by assessing what the needs are, creating a plan, implement that plan and then evaluate if that plan is making sense. That's kind of the baseline goal of recreation as a whole. We want to provide services in accordance with our training, our experience and the terms of our licensure. One of the big things that that governing body of TR dictates is as much as I work maybe in clinical realm, I'm not a doctor, he don't want me performing surgery, but I'm part of a collaborative team that can help create the ability to overcome maybe some barriers. So a good translation to that in a community setting, we're all part of the city of Longmont, right? We all have our specialties within the city of Longmont and while I may be very good at recreation, I don't know that I'm the person you want doing irrigation. That's just not me. Now I could learn, I could try, but we want to stay within what our scope and our education allows us to do, otherwise we can potentially lose our license, can't work anymore, and then my dog's not going to be very happy because she can't eat. So it's good to kind of understand that there are those boundaries within what we can and cannot do that are dictated by these governing agencies, but we collaborate in those community and clinical settings to refer out to the experts. If there's something we can't handle, hopefully we have those connections built, we built those relationships so we can find the people who are the experts and get to know different scenarios if we're not your people. We also want to create fun, safe, and diverse experiences to help people maintain their independence as well as improve quality of life and recreate that wellness identity because we have that for our whole life. Think about what helps make you feel well, not just physically. What fills your cup each day, what allows you to feel like you have a purpose. This is part of what our goal is in our Recreation Programming Division. Everybody's still with me? You're okay so far? So City of Longmont Services for the Senior Services Division, we as Recreation Programmers create educational endeavors like our history, wellness lectures, things like that. We are very fortunate here to have our resource and supportive services division. I hope you all know how wonderful it is to have that here. Most entities, the person in my role, a one-man show, is also providing those connections and referring out. We have professionals on site who can provide those services to our community. We provide arts and creative pursuits, socialization, travel which we're working on very diligently, cultural enrichment program and special events, humanities and culture and technology. And one of the big things that I've really tasked our team with is how are we measuring the success of our programs? Is it that qualitative data where we talk about those experiences? How do people feel? What did they see? How did they interact? Was it fun? Did they need someone new? We also have quantitative data. Are these events and programs being attended? That's important. We also have survey results from our community. How many offerings are we able to provide to our community? Not only within our scope, but within the resources on our team. And then are we staying within our budget? So I wanted to share with you we did a team building workshop for our programming team which consists of myself, Terry Calvin and Valerie Rodriguez who are our seniors recreation program coordinators who is our part-time therapy preparation coordinator. And for their goals in 2024 I had them all write down their personal professional goals compared to contrasted those goals and found where we had similarities. And made these the foundational pillars of what we're trying to provide to our seniors. We want to build relationships and community partnerships. We want to expand our programs and be innovative. We've got a lot of great foundational things here. I like to think about it like a house. The house is here. But how can we decorate the house? How can we make it even better while maintaining the quality programs that are already happening? We want to look at process improvement. How can we make things more functional for staff, for our community? How can we clean up processes that, let's be honest, it sounds like there's been a little bit of turnover here. And find where some things fell through the cracks and bring them back up to standard. Budget and contracted services we want to make sure we're providing opportunities within what our budget allows and maybe even seeking sponsors or grants to help support beyond what our budget allows and how generously the transport gives to our programs as well. And then finally professional development. Talked a lot about that career path. It's important that us as professionals continue to understand how our industry is changing. How our industry is changing. What someone in their 80s once versus what someone in their 50s once and how can we meet the needs of both. And then finally I asked everyone what's our why? Why do you come here each day? Why do you do what you do? What drives you? What challenges you? And the big overwhelming thing I heard was to provide a space where people know they're not forgotten. People know that they are cared for. People can be mentally and physically supported. And that was fantastic to hear because that is the foundation of why we build everything we do. And I'm happy to share this with anyone who would like it. It's a little small on here. But within each of those areas that we identify through our personal professional goals created some objectives for the year. So taking those goals, breaking and doubting a little bit more and then asking if there's something we can't do, why not? That's our goal. And trying to work around that. Any questions? So in regard to your attendance at these programs, do you ever get to the point where a program is not viable anymore because of lack of attendance or how do you do that? And I'm really glad, it's hardly, right? I'm really glad you're asking those questions. One of the things that when we were starting to really dig in deep here and looking at what programs made sense, we have to look at attendance. Ronnie's getting the lights for us so if you have sensitive eyes like me, get ready. That's how my dad used to wake me up in the morning and look at that line on. But attendance is super important and one of the areas that we're starting to really look at is our dropping groups. If we're having the same three to four people in a room where we're already busting at the seams, trying to find where to put different classes, does that class continue to make sense? So we're really going to start to monitor that attendance on a daily basis to get that data. Also, I think from participants it's very important to know that if this is something that we're just doing to do but we're not having the experience that we maybe once had, how can we show that? So that attendance is something that we're starting to track this year. Even more in depth to get that data to make those decisions. I might be one of the three people that comes to that group religiously and I love it, but if 38 people want to come to something else on a regular basis, what makes sense? How are we best fitting the needs of our overall population? Does that answer that question? Yes. Is grant-running something you've done before different than what it is successfully? I'm not as familiar with here. Historically, I'm still fairly new to while I'm not still learning. I have written grants before. I actually hope to get a new bus for one of the centers that I worked at previously. I believe the city itself has some experts in writing grants that we can also look to if we are seeking an additional grant for resources. What other questions? I like the rule. How do you measure the diversity of this in the different programs? You know, again, and I know you don't want to ask about where they are or whatever, but is there any way that the instructor or something like this would have an idea of how many people are actually Spanish? Why do you go with whatever? That's a really good question. We haven't touched much on our Spanish program, so I'll let Ronnie take it. One thing we're evaluating is our registration system and what data we can track through that process. That's something we're exploring at this time right now. Currently, do we have anything in place? No, we don't. As Amy mentioned, we're just continuing to evaluate a lot of our systems and structures that are in place before we all got here. How do we improve them? How can we collect this data and information and really paint that picture of who we're surveying and what capacity? We are evaluating our current Retract Systems, our software registration to see what we can do to collect that information. That'll help, but at this time, I'm glad to hear that. One of the things I felt in the past is when we bring this up, there's not a real good answer as to why we're not doing that and it sounds like we're listening to what we're after. Yes. A lot of these things will never come overnight or next week or next month, especially when we're looking at software. But it is something we're exploring. What kind of time are you looking at so we've got a couple things going right now. We have a whole new team and so we are not only getting everybody to speak to how to navigate this software, but from that same conversation, what we need to improve it. So while they're going through these trainings we're looking at the experts with the software to see what we can update and change to track specific information. To collect specific information again as a support the work that we're doing here at the Center for a better collection more. Just as an example of something we can do with our software, so you might start seeing this soon, is we're trying to figure out on a marketing basis how are people hearing about what we've got going on. So you might hear that question of well how did you hear about this. Was it our go? Was it word of mouth? Was it a flyer? Was it our social media presence? If we can collect that data and see where our community is getting this information we know where to push that information out more. And that's a capability of this program that I think could correlate to what we're trying to seek. It sounds like for that demographic data as well. So there are the capabilities it's just learning the technology. Are there any more questions? Where did you find her? It sounds pretty good to me. It's fantastic. Qualifications are very impressive. Yes, very impressive. Did you have a quick question? My name is Eric. How do you recommend a new program? So as a guest perhaps or as a team? Both. Both. So from the customer facing perspective, one idea from a previous facility I actually had this to share with Ronnie earlier this week, but I've been under the weather a little bit. Sorry. We in another facility had a program request form where we had people fill out I'd like to see this. These are the days that I would prefer and if we get enough of those requests or it's something we can accommodate that provides us that pattern of structural data that we don't renew or we can always come talk to us or email us. The offices are not scary. Does that answer that question? Yeah, one more. I like that question. You say that the participants fill out a form at the end of the class has to be... So like a survey perhaps? Yeah. That sounds like something that's happened in the past here that we'd love to try and bring back. I can't really say. We're finally getting our feet under us a little bit. We have a very experienced team but we're learning a new culture. We're learning a new community. We want to meet the needs of that community and part of that is getting that feedback. Because I was going to say that'd be a good question to ask the question. What new program would you like to see? That's a great idea. You're saying you've got a form or something like that but I don't know if this place has ever suggested that... Ever had a suggestion box or something like that? Yeah. Another one we did in a former facility was we didn't have a comment box or a suggestion box. Whatever staff member was a point for that. For example, if it was necessarily going to me, if it was aquatics, if it was going to be a aquatics coordinator, here it could be resource programming. We would actually post what the comment was and then a response to it. I don't like what the stop light system. Green is absolutely... Thank you for bringing that up. Yellow is like a more... This is a possibility. We would have to explore it more. Red would be your stop of... I don't know if this makes sense here or it's something we can do within our budget staffing. But that way at least we're showing that people like her are being hurt. We're not just pushing these suggestions aside. When I say we're listening with openers or listening with openers. Great. Well, thank you, Amy. Appreciate that. Anybody else does think of residual questions? First page in the go, if you open up. On the top, Amy. We have two, Amy. So, Amy Pudge, if you want to call, email or so by the office. I'd be happy to talk to you. Thank you all so much. That's good. Good question. We were lucky to find Amy. And I've been talking about our team for a very long time about how lucky we are finding these pieces to build the current team we have. We're just in a fantastic spot right now with experiences that we have, the knowledge, and Amy specifically to her supervisory skills to be able to evaluate again our current systems and structures. How do we take the things that are going well? How do we make them better? How do we start to finish more efficient and more effective? And so, she's just very organized in that space. So, very lucky to have her and to keep her. Thank you everyone. Three year commitments? Five years? Depends on how nice Ronnie is to me. Fair enough. All right, thank you. Ronnie? I just want to make a quick comment. Every, I know how much you've spoken about putting your team together and doing it very intentionally, very slowly, and getting the very best of every single time I've met a new person in their positions. They've been very impressive. And I think you're putting together a great team here. And I think they're beginning to work, you know, they're not just beginning, but they're working well together and they're coming together. I've just been impressed on how things are, you know, working within a whole new team. I appreciate that. Thank you. And the chemistry does speak for itself. You know, it takes time to build that and all of them, they're able to just build on taking each other's strengths just to support each other in our program and continue to move forward at that fast rate that I anticipated and just everything I've done is fantastic. So, very fortunate right now. Kudos to the team and kudos for you. Thank you. All the way. This is mainly for the new members. The old people. People that have been around for a while. Sorry. We're all old. Most of this last year we have been working on three areas. We've talked about it a little bit. We've been talking about housing, transportation and outreach. And Lonnie and Shirley, Sheila have been doing housing and transportation has been running like a ring. And Beth and Art were doing the outreach and Beth resigned so I kind of built into Beth a little bit on the outreach. Anyway, the objective of all of this is to try to make some reasonable type of recommendations to the city as far as what we think should be done in these areas. These are tough areas. I think especially housing is very difficult. I'd say the objective is to first to influence city council to go with city. To adopt policies, procedures, budget, whatever in the direction that we would like it to go. I think that maybe Lonnie could go ahead and outline you could start in your housing and say what kind of things you might recommend and then I would ask Arlene to do the same thing and Art and I would do the same thing for outreach. I really don't know what to God's sake. Your reports were very good by the way. I can see that that represented a lot of work. So anyway, I'm just looking forward to what to God's sake. Okay, thank you. Very much. What I wanted to do, I started looking into housing. I realized that it's got so many so many aspects to it. And from the unhoused to people who can't afford to buy homes to just the whole gamut and I think I outlined it in the report. My intention was for everybody to understand what I was finding out. I wanted to get all together in a document so that you can keep that and you can refer to it. So if you come up with any idea and you think I wonder really what transitional housing is, you can go back to the document and you can get some information from it. I just wanted to make a comprehensive report on everything I found out and that was my intention with the report I sent out. I don't really want to go through that very much because I think everybody has the opportunity to read it on their own. But if you have any questions about it, let me know. It's my knowledge of it has been expanding daily almost with getting the information that I needed. If you have any questions, please just let me know. Like I said, you can keep that report to where if you have any questions yourself and you want to get more information. Hopefully this is a whole round up of all the different aspects of housing. So, but I do want to go through this. This will be quick. One month population is approximately 10,000 and 90% are 65 and older close to the proportion nationally. The median income in the median income in Longmont is 90k and for seniors 65k with 25% of seniors having income below 20,000. 6% of seniors in Longmont are considered very poor with incomes less than 10,000. 63% of the Longmont population own their own home. 78% of seniors are homeowners and 22% are renters. Senior homeowners experience financial hardships due to increased costs of mortgages, utilities, taxes and other expenses. Current and future city ordinance changes to allow AEUs, duplexes and higher density in existing neighborhoods can help to alleviate some of the hardships and will also lose the restrictions on new bills. The city should be encouraged and expanded. That is going to be one of the recommendations that come out of this is that we encourage them to change the zoning. Pushing for a change in the homestead property tax exemption to link the exemption to the homeowner rather than the property will encourage senior downsizing. In addition to limiting homeowners expenses it will free up the tight market of larger homes. This means one-time financial shortfalls and paying for utilities taxes etc. Need to be aware of the cash assistance that may be available through the senior center and by working with the city, county and federal billing entity to arrange for alternative payment arrangements. Good communication is necessary and not always available. Senior renters tend to have lower incomes and their housing stability is more fragile than for homeowners. And it's this group that uses and meets the variety of public and private programs provided by Longmont. The Longmont Housing Authority LHA manages apartments for low-income residents including seniors. They also manage the section 8 program including a voucher and actually it's not called section 8 anymore. Housing choice voucher. Housing choice. Housing choice. Including a voucher waitlist. New low cost housing options co-supported by LHA, Boulder County Housing Authority and the city of Longmont like this spoke should be encouraged and expanded. Other new development projects could be helped by simplifying the planning process wherever possible and working with developers to provide more low cost units. And we encourage them to continue to work with the city. The low cost rental housing stock is an affordable gap situation with the rental mismatch being about 2,000 units. Many seniors find themselves in dire straits financially and believe they are facing homelessness. Resource specialists at the senior center and our center can help seniors with emergency housing recommendations or assistance through the housing issue program. It is difficult to reach vulnerable seniors who do not mix in the community or know where to get help. So the city could use their utility billing services to let their customers know how to get help before it's too late. Since HUD money can only be used for infrastructure projects, services such as safe lot which prevent people tipping into being homeless on the street and being funded wherever possible by the city county and private organizations. That's going to be another recommendation. Safe Lots was a program that anybody doesn't know where people would congregate at a church at night and they would be able to park in the parking lot and use the church's facilities. I was aware of it because I helped at Round P Entry and they used Westview Presbyterian and they could park there. They had facilities. They could take showers. They could get something to eat. They really would give an opportunity to have a more comfortable existence as far as temporarily using the Safe Lots program. However, the Safe Lots program did not get funded. So it ended. So we want to encourage the city to provide funds that would bring Safe Lots back. Does anybody have any questions about that? How many actual recommendations do you have? We have the... It's hard with the homeless situation and the transitional housing because everything's being recommended. People are recommending affordable housing. They're recommending transitional housing. So it's kind of hard the city's already doing all that. I feel like we kind of thought. What we're going to do is recommend the city ordinance. The tax exemption? Thank you. The zoning gets changed so they can do ADUs, duplexes and higher density in existing neighborhoods. They can turn buildings into... I think we need to focus on probably two or three as far as... That would be one of them. The homestead property tax exemption. We want to push that. But that's really state level. I don't know that that's city council. I got some more things to say about that. That is coming up. Through the... I think I put it in my report from the Boulder County area on aging. They're tracking that. And they are looking into the two things that are coming up, which is the funding of the older Americans... Yes, the older Americans act. And the homestead act. So they're going to be going through... I asked Lindsay about the letter that we want to send out about the homestead act. And she said this legislation is coming out of the governor's office in the next couple of weeks. So we should probably hold off until we see what they're doing. I think I can respond to some of that. Okay. Well as soon as we know what they're doing to make up for that the fact that it didn't make it into a special session then we'll find out what's going on and then we'll put together a letter that we can send out. But we have to do it because it's like March that they do the consideration and they give out the funding. So we have to have like mid-March. I'm thinking of something a little sooner. No, no, no. I'm saying that's our deadline. Yeah. That deadline is mid-March. So what I'd like to recommend is when we get the letter together I want to send it to everybody but send it to any seniors you know. Tell them to go ahead and sign it and send it in. It's like paper the office which is with as much letters as we possibly can on both situations and see what we can do about getting people more involved in it and expressing what they want to have done. Does that make sense? That's good. Can the senior senator put something in here for people to see about what you're talking about? And a letter to pick up and sign from here? Should we SLA out for the various ballot issues that was posted after it was really educational? But if you're getting seven or eight thousand people for your month is there some way to put something up that says sign this letter. Just put your name on it. I have to double check. I'm not sure if it's okay. If you could look into that, yeah, find out. Seven thousand people month. Okay, so it's going to be the homestead act. It's going to be the zoning. There's one more hand. Save Flots. Save Flots? Save Flots 24 to 0. Oh, right. And that's the that's the old age the older Americans have. The older Americans. Yes, that's the one that's going through the state legislature and that's the one that the agency is tracking too. Yeah, can I This is kind of awkward. I've done some work on that. I called Sandy Cedar. Okay. Is that right? Yes. And I got some suggestions. Okay. I was looking at all the legislation that had been done. Most of this was done before you did your work. I should say most of it was I think after you did your work. So I talked to Sandra yesterday and she told me about a couple of those. Actually one bill. I hope I can remember this stuff about she what happened to me in the H.O.A. the last time she called and was talking on the street and I didn't know if I stuck with me. So I'm not sure I got it all. She sent me I asked her if it would be okay if we could send letters regarding certain legislation to our representative and to our senator. It's on the same line, same thing that you're talking about. Exactly. And so if you don't mind, if you bear with me, I'll read the, and she sent me back an email with the conversation of us and this is, it's not very long. Okay. Hello David, thanks for reaching out to me. I'm so glad we've had the right chance to chat tonight. You're the three bills we've talked about today at this point. The city council has contacted me in the official position on any of these. So technically the city has no position. Just to share with Ronnie and Jeff, did you get that today already? Absolutely. The city council as a body makes official positions on legislative bills, the city position is always the city council voted on position. Okay, I think we've that's one thing I wanted to do. The senior advisory, the senior citizen advisory board can take positions on legislative bills that send information to legislature. It does not need to be the sheriff that sends those out. However, it needs to be identified that the board is taking the position, not the city, but the city council. Unless the council has taken that position specifically. Since it is a board position and not a city position, staff may not send out that information. You're welcome to send your positions to the city council to ask them to take a similar position. However, there may be times that the council takes a different position, of course, and theirs is the official city position. So that's what I'm saying. Now, I'm just thinking what she suggested further is I remember she said that you can check I got three bills here. Could you tell us the bills before? Yeah. Okay. I would have sent these out earlier, but I didn't know what they were. And this is one of these was just filed yesterday. Okay. I'm just going to write something up on the board for everybody who go right ahead. Okay. All right. The first bill is this is House Concurrent Resolution 24-101. And I'll just read it to you. The summary is quite it's not real likely. It's only a few pages, but I think the basic point you can get across in a second in a separate way. Submitting House Concurrent Resolution submitting to the registered electors of the state of Colorado an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning the expansion of eligibility for the senior property tax exemption and connection therewith allowing a senator who received the exemption for 2016 or any later year for a prior owner occupied primary residence to claim the exemption for the seniors current owner occupied primary residence regardless of how long the senior has owned or occupied that residence. So what's the number? HCR 101 24-101 So basically that's the homestead this is regarding the homestead HCR. I didn't catch where it said that it was to follow the owner if they moved. Did I miss that part? I think that's what it is. It says allowing a senior to claim the exemption for the seniors current occupied regardless of how long it's been. So they could move but they don't have that. And say that number again because it doesn't sound like it's a it's not a current bill it's something that was done I think well you know I don't know when that was done exactly. SB 24-101 That's HCR 24-101 HCR 24-1 1000 Yeah did I say 101? I'm sorry 1001 and so okay and here's okay and here's so that's personally I think that's something we should support. I mean it's continuing resolution to fill in to you know to make people eligible for that exemption. Okay going on the second one is House bill 24 dash 1166 Now that's a lot I just found out about last night. The idea has been around but Sandy said it had just been filed yesterday. So this gets a little I had to read this several times so it says okay Dan the title of it is a bill for an act concerning the expansion of property tax exemptions for certain owner occupied primary residences. Now this reads and states the property tax exemptions for certain owner occupied. For this I'll just read it to you for the property tax years commencing during the property tax reassessment cycle that began on or after January 125 the bill changes the amount of the exemptions for the owner occupied primary residents of a qualifying senior a veteran with a disability for the surviving spouse under that one or who died in the line of duty whose death resulted in service related injury or disease okay here's the different part from 50% of the first 100,000 of the actual value of the residents to 50% of the actual amount of the residents equal to the estimated state median value and I worked that out and that's an increase because the increase the median increase would be something like maybe approaching 600,000 which would be 300,000 50% of 300,000 200,000 okay you with me so far? are you smarter than I was? alright so and then if the median value accept that accept that if the median value declines the exemption amount continues to be calculated based on the median home value based to calculate the exemption amount of the property cashier is included in the cycle in order to grant quality on the amount that is included that's where I am here okay if I can interrupt for a second this is the website where you can look it up and you can see everything about the bill so you get an executive summary you get the full text of the bill where it is in the legislative process and you get to see who the sponsors are so this would be all the information that you would need and you can search by these numbers and then I think David some people can read the executive summaries for themselves we don't need to go into the alternatives so much and we can get to the end of the meeting and you've got another one right? I've got one more and I want to finish this up because I've got a suggestion and I was a senior who has owned or occupied the seniors resident for ten years or their surviving spouse okay that's the part that's been reinstated I'm trying to hurry this along oh yeah okay so it really gets to the property exemption then it says the exemption of the seniors senior spouse current residents regardless of how long the senior or surviving spouse has owned or occupied that prison the bill makes the statutory changes to conform to the constitutional amendment so if that constitutional amendment passes next fall this will be incorporated according to the amendment okay then the last one I've got to talk about and I don't this could be this is pretty simple straight forward and that's the senate bill 24-040 senate bill 24-040 and that's the one that provides an annual adjustment to the state funding of social service and the distribution of the money if I got that right okay and that's the one that you sent out, that's part of your report saying that you should probably support that absolutely and I did want to say appropriations is in March so they will be deciding how much money is appropriated for the bill however what we found out was it would mean boulder county would only get like 250,000 if they went for 5 million which is what they're going for boulder county would get and I don't mean only but I mean that gives us some perspective on what we're going for I need to realize that there are 16 different area agencies within the state so that money that 5 million dollars needs to be spread over the 16 exactly so this is specifically for the area yes area agencies to fund the AACs right and then to give them the ability to do an increase for the inflation as it continues through the years every three years and they'll look at it again for an increase in inflation right and it is every three years and they don't right now have an increase on populations so if the population gets bigger that doesn't generate an increase in the funding they don't benefit from additional funding the senior population is expected to be leading demographic change between now and 20th well here's my punch line if you don't like it why don't you say so why don't you say so Sheila wrote a letter and it's a good letter and it's right on target however that letter this is what I'm saying that letter was written before this stuff so hitch hiking and do what Sandy suggested do what I'm saying or did I say and she agreed actually she suggested she said go ahead and send it to your representatives senators also there's two representatives that we'd be sending it to here McCormack and McCormack and Lewis she's the senator Sheila could send that letter but I would suggest that we add those three bills to the letter and sign that the board unanimously supports these bills and that we send a copy to the representatives CC's to the mayor City Council and anybody else and she said that way I thought was maybe what does Sheila's letter say now the letter would have to be redone yeah we would have to redo it but I'm thinking yeah it's a good letter it's just like I say it doesn't incorporate some of the new stuff and there's actually two and I want to clarify that too one says I as a board member of the advisory board the other says from a private citizen and it doesn't include anything about the advisory board and so the board needs to vote well actually yeah before it can say we need to vote for it we need to vote today and if everybody's okay with it then Sheila can go ahead make the adjustments and just sign it okay so we would literally we wouldn't have to put in any other information no details about the bills we're supporting we just we are supporting this this this we ask that you support that I think yeah I think just real short because we here's what we're doing they know the bills we're referring to and as long as it lists the number and what it's called right that's all we need to put in there yeah okay yeah I agree it should it's probably very shorter than that they don't need to be you need to state your topic so that they know that you know what you're talking about but otherwise those numbers and you need to say the advisory board of the city of Long Island for seniors voted to urge you to support these bills and that's almost all it needs to say yeah and then just list the numbers and that's it that's right because even if it's a whole page you have no idea how pressed for time they are right and they don't have time to read anything and then we can do one for just John Q public you know my name's so-and-so I'm a senior citizen in Long Island and I want you to know that I support these bills does everybody understand what we're talking about right we're asking that you support these bills very good this is not the usual thing I don't think but if we can influence them let's try to do it I've done this before and can be pretty how many do you think one page two paragraphs we would recommend that it should be shorter than she has my question is unfortunately I I'm not I'm bilingual but as far as writing something Spanish I don't know how to do it does the senior citizen have any transcripts we utilize our staff we have Bianca can help translate we have Melissa and Ron and is that okay for them to do I have to double check I have to double check with everything to make sure that's something that I have a good question and if not then I can reach out to somebody I know who can translate and Maria says she's willing to help with that maybe keep it maybe keep it within the board you're absolutely right okay good not where we can get that some of the Spanish speakers that we know I don't know the motion but I'll say what I think we need in the motion we need a motion that says that I guess delegate is the word trust that we direct Sheila to redraft the letter and include reference to the three bills that we have talking about and that we have unanimous consent of the board and however she wants to phrase that but I don't think that's it I think what we need to vote on is that the board supports these bills yes that's all we need to vote on and what we do about it we don't need to vote we don't need to you know we can talk about it we can agree to it but we don't need to go on record is voting that we're going to have Sheila redraft the letter that doesn't have to be voted on at all what we do want to vote on is the fact that the we want to vote that the advisory board the senior citizens advisory board of Longmont supports these bills okay and however the best way to work that and we can't say unanimous unless it is right so is that the way we word it yes exactly yeah I make a motion that the senior citizens advisory board of Longmont support HCR 24-101 HB 24-1166 and SB 24-040 okay and along with that that we send CC to again the mayor and the city council is that what you said on that? see we don't even have to vote on what we do about it we don't need to do that we don't need to do that okay all right so this motion is specifically saying our unanimous support of these three bills okay that's it right okay any further discussion okay all those in favor say hi did we get a second oh I'm sorry was there a second okay discussion all those in favor let's do it this way all those in favor raise your hand I guess that makes it unanimous is anybody in favor okay motion carries okay okay do you have everything you need to I can go ahead and draft the new letter it's not going to be that hard okay and I'm saying you're saying yeah I'll do it tonight and I'll get it out to everybody you need get it right right distributed may I also suggest that you copy Sandy Cedar and ask her to ask for council's approval if it's not too late you know the order in which the bills are heard it goes real fast so time is of the essence in getting these letters off you know we should email and try to get them out by Friday and then it could go before the council next week I think and if if it's in time so you're losting what's it going to council for oh well the council also approves does the thing that we just did at the city council level and if the city council does that if they approve yeah then any letter that's written by anybody can say I'm a private citizen but I want to tell you that the Long Island city council has approved has recommended that you approve this bill who takes care of that then well Sandy Cedar brings decides what bills to bring before council I'll get in touch with her I'll just provide her she'll tell me whatever information she needs and we'll take it from there all she needs is those numbers she'll take it from there and I suggest we start getting letters out before we find out whether it's been approved or not by the city council well we know that actually officially I'll tell you what the council has done but I can tell you that the council has not been asked to apply in on any of these yet so I don't want to wait for them to do that we can recommend anything we want but I'm trying to we can add on to any letters in the future if they approve it we can say it does have the potential to having some impact or maybe not we can try I think numbers always matter they're legislatures anything further on housing does anybody have any other information that they think they want to recommend from housing rather than do this at the end for council comments it probably makes more sense for me to talk about this now the main subject of last night's study session was housing and the council voted there were recommendations that you can find online I think the council recommended increases in density increases in the amount of affordable units that could be subject to incentive and a whole bunch of things that made it easier to get developers to build affordable housing as opposed to having to wait for the LAJ to use their fees in lieu which you know the money counts for more if the LAJ does it but it happens sooner if the builders do it so you know it's a trade off but these were all really positive things and it wasn't it wasn't a good it was not a shoe in that the council would favor it all because there's getting there's a lot of opposition to building more housing in Longmont by certain factions but the most important thing along these lines sorry yeah up here is that the 24 1152 is a bill that makes the building of accessory dwelling units a use by right in many more zones specifically what it would do for Longmont is that in any single family zone neighborhood if you've got room for it you can build an accessory dwelling unit and that includes neighborhoods that are governed by HOAs so what that does is void yeah it voids any HOA covenant that says you can't build anything to use so that is wrong because it uses elders a place to downsize into including you know children that own a home can build a senior home that's probably the primary reason that they would do it and it also includes an appropriation for paying the city back if it waves the impact fees for the person that builds the ADU so that was really as far as I'm concerned at least a big victory and it was not unanimous on the council and actually Sandy recommended the opposite because it does slightly limit local control but HOAs limit local control a lot more and so the council ultimately decided that removing the HOA presumption meant more to online than if people weren't choices so anyway that's an important one too that one could be included in the letter you'd have to take another vote but the city council has already and Sandy will write a letter you know that was actually one of the bills that I was going to break up and I thought maybe the city wouldn't support that the city's the staff recommended not supporting it but the council wrote that that's good to know can I ask a quick question does that include duplexes no it's specifically an additional it's specifically accessory dwelling units so does that mean attached to the house or detached this one specifically is detached because those are the ones that the HOA tends to preclude they it's hard to prevent basement apartments and stuff like HOA covenants additional yeah separate ones okay so if we support this there could be some flack to the council it seems to be and us who support regarding allowing accessory dwelling units so I just I support it but so that's what I'm saying the council already voted to support it last night I'm saying whether we vote to support it yeah what does everybody think I don't think it's correct I would not support that add it to the letter fourth bill of support and you might additionally mention that the council also supports it I was totally wrong I thought the council was supported yeah it was 43 or 52 somebody voted against it Joan, the mayor voted against it and I think Diane Chris voted against it you can look in the minutes I was counting just the number of green s's and past okay so not to be on the other side but and why well because I've been involved in HOAs and I've seen what can happen if this thing gets out of control and so again it's not simple there are some relations to the HOAs they can do it it avoids that specific that specific covenants and doesn't change HOA it does not change the ability of HOAs to override local code or to be more restricted than local code except in that one case and yeah there was there's opposition to that because lots of people like having exclusive neighborhoods well I just thought to myself if my next door neighbor is about are you real crazy about that you got money no I'm just stretching my fingers comment about a neighbor I just said if one of my neighbors built a necessary dwelling unit I don't know if I'd be real crazy or if there are three or four on my block I'm not sure I'd be real crazy about it I do understand that's a line with what you said last time you said that people did that it would be about 6% of the vacancies and not take care of some of the yeah a very small fraction of the single family homes would if that fraction did it built ADUs that it would essentially solve our immediate short-term housing needs all by itself I think that's the great or good that's why I support it because it's the great I live in an HOA got me too and HOAs do stuff that is good for neighborhoods well let's vote on it any more discussion let's vote on it or I should say somebody make a motion Lonnie I make a motion that the Long-Mount Senior Advisory Board support HB24-1152 second second alright any further discussion a little favor raise your hand raise except for one vote okay not unanimous but you can't use the word unanimous that's okay we can on the other ones and I will definitely add that the council also supported that okay we'll be going anybody have any other questions about housing any other ideas that they think the city should be recommended recommendations given to the city if you do there's something that didn't come up today and you think later oh wait I wanted to make this recommendation that we give to the council or to Harold when he's here in March just let us know just let me know and we can work through okay Eric sorry I just had a question how much does a safe watch program cost no I don't know I really don't know I just know that the funding didn't how much is a safe watch cost I have any my hand was up for that same reason I wasn't going to ask the cost but it's I want to find out more about why the city didn't fund that and there was the was hoping to get a state grant to fund it and that may be why the city didn't fund it but deciding whether to support this the safe watch program and and you know doing the same thing about that but it's not a state legislature thing it would be a thing to the city we make a recommendation and I would like to I'd like to advise or raise that you could vote on it next month because we're still soon enough for city appropriations by then and we could find out more about that either by maybe one of the members can talk to Alice and I can talk to the people who did funding in the city and what I'd like to recommend is we're not voting on what we're going to recommend to the city yet so we don't need to worry about not voting on it but why don't we table the idea of making safe watch one of the recommendations until next meeting when I can get more information are you okay with that we need a motion how are we to think about you know into the future and it's I don't think here which I go on about all the time but it's just part of housing and assisted living I think that those are things that are critical for our aging populations keep it in your thoughts and maybe five or six years of work I'll make some clarifications sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you like that first of all I've been told by people at LHA or people who know what's going on in the city that assisted living is in the pipeline they're really thinking about the fact that that's something they have to address so we're happening here but yes you're right it doesn't help it doesn't hurt to let them know yep we're pushing you you know we support it too so we can definitely make that recommendation and I want to re-read my report from the from the housing because there was another recommendation in there but we will have it all ready for March meeting exactly what recommendations we're going to make to the city exactly so one thing I do have a question about is does senior daycare fall under housing or is that human service is that well I thought we were senior services and not specifically housing so if we're senior services for the entire city then I think I don't care falls under that but I thought you were adding it I thought you were adding it to the housing recommendation I think it's something that we need to continue to push in my opinion because a senior population not getting any younger we definitely need to we won't forget yep let's move on to transportation well I know that I included this for all of you and I did come up with three recommendations based on this so my three recommendations are that we continue to advocate for microtransit service and our advocate means to be that it be a reasonable amount right now the charge is $6 for a one-way trip and you also have to call a week ahead of time microtransit you can call within 15 to 30 minutes you can get a ride I don't know what it's going to be I know it's probably not going to be free but it should be a really reduced rate and that would be for seniors or anybody else that needs it the other second thing I'm thinking about is the Firestone Long Island Mobility Hub which is at 25th and our I-25 and C-119 I think that we need to advocate for RTD or local bus service or something to be able to get us from Long Island to that hub so that we can access that service that takes cars off the road that gets people going and it needs again it needs to be a reasonable amount but I think if we just advocate for that service we can get there and then the third thing out of all of my lists here is the Street Cross Walk Lights I'm watching in by that sixth and main the other day and yes that walk light goes on before but I don't think it's long enough so I think if we've got if people can start across on a walk light before we allow traffic to start going and one of the things that came up at this transportation meeting the other night was pedestrian and bicycle accidents that are happening and they had a whole data on it and it's not exactly at 6 but it's from 9th to about 21st that the majority of those accidents happen and I can understand that people think that once you get 9 it's a road, it's a race track from there and I think we need to take a look at letting people start crossing before on driving or on turning whatever I've noticed that I've noticed that it used to be that the light started counting right away and now the white man stays white for a little while and then it starts counting and that white man needs to stay white longer and unfortunately what I thought about it when I looked at it I was like dang they did change and unfortunately they didn't change it for long enough so we probably have to go through another change to get it to be longer don't you think? a piece of information on software I know it's software but the thing is that they have already purchased a new software but the software itself has to be smarter the physical device has to be upgraded and so they are upgrading them one at a time and first of all I need to recommend that they put up a map or something which ones have been upgraded and which ones have any because you don't know whether the new ones just aren't long enough or whether you're looking at an old one and that matters when you complain it matters they are aware of the problem they have purchased a fix but it has to be installed one by one another recommendation that people have made is that if people are having a hard time crossing there then to go down to the mid block where the new lights are because those are longer and they can cross over there now it all depends upon who's walking and can they make it down to mid block it's just a comfort thing but these are all temporary things anyway until the things get done but I would love to know which they upgraded because when I saw they had changed the one in front of the building I was like bonus but it's still not long enough you know people who are the field people in the city are young and active they are they think it's funny but the other thing is to say to them if your wife or even you are out there and you have a kid in a stroller or you're walking across with little kids they're not walking at the same pace you are you need to be able to safely get across and even animals you know and your dog on the means you just need to be open to those are like three recommendations those they are both of you have done an excellent work alright do we just want to carry those forward as is somebody make a motion now make a motion that we carry the recommendations mentioned before him to the city council is that what I'm supposed to say yeah yeah that's a little well I don't know that we need to vote on it yet because we're going to have more recommendations next month so we might as well wait until we really know what's going on I wanted to be in a position where we have heralds here next month that said everybody approves of this but we don't okay well in that case what's made a bad spot when we have to do sports Leo David you can make the motion yeah I can I know that but I like to have other people but I will I make a motion that we adopt our our means and recommendations and that we move forward as part of our recommendations to herald next month and to the city council so welcome thank you and we're going to wait on ours the housing yeah that's good and I do want to make one thing I think it's a good idea for these reports to be sent beforehand that people get them beforehand so they can read them um we kind of question whether we do bullet points at the meeting or whether we actually put out a report beforehand how do people each feel about it well actually we had decided that six months ago or a year ago that's how we were going to send them out ahead of time you know so people had time to digest it was oh I thought we were okay all right good so that's what I think is the best way to do it so I just remind everybody to get the reports in faster yeah all right do you still need to vote on the motion okay everybody in favor there was a motion in a second okay all those in favor of the motion say aye aye those opposed abstentions okay let's go on to outreach um art do you have anything to add on that no not really I'm glad to hear that that we're looking at a way of tracking get the information of the participants here and and then the other thing that we talked about is that and I don't know that's ever been said that we will do it is that the outreach what it called the outreach specialist or what is it called the resource specialist the resource specialist the people are taking resource specialist I'm sorry I couldn't think of it that they're continuing to tell others about participate in programs here at the center too I think that's very important and of course talking about it a little bit she does attend a lot of activities here and that she is going to be part of that to help in looking at expanding the programs here at the center excellent and with with that support again evaluating our systems and processes right we're talking about collecting data from a lot of our drop-in groups and it starts with being able to track attendance and talk about the importance of tracking attendance earlier in conversation so we'll do that additional support understanding the importance of now going through the registration process to register in our systems for these drop-in programs so we can keep and collect that data and so there's some confusion around there we're not changing anything it's complicated for anybody it's just we need this information to have the data we need to support our programs and decision making the effectiveness of programs track attendance numbers for specific groups things like that and there is a big increase in participants there has been a while thank you okay I can go through my stuff I've talked about before this is mainly for the new people because you've only heard me talk about we've talked a lot about see I consider expanding weekend hours after hours and I do think that should be a recommendation eventually to and to I know there's a cost and I don't know what the cost is that's it it's approved on that so we're in the process of working on that as we speak additional funding hours for staff to expand hours so during the day on the weekend or both right now we're looking at 5 to 7 spending 5 to 7 Monday through Thursday and then I think we're going to 8 to 12 okay funding was approved again just being innovative thinking how can we continue to improve what we're doing more opportunities more availability to access our programs for our resources as well just had some conversations and kind of start getting that mindset of what it's going to look like for both sides from our recreation programming team to expand and continue to be able to program in the evenings days times what programs are we looking for and for our support services side what does it what can it look like for our staff to now be available right now our schedules are 8 to 5 right so are we looking at flexing time and if we are moving some of our staff to that later evening does that mean they're coming in later or are we looking at doing for longer days kind of like almost at a 4 4 days or 4 to 10 so we're I started that conversation this morning with our leadership team they're going to go back to their teams have smaller conversations they're equipped with the information they need to answer some of those questions they're going to go back to the leadership group to kind of say okay well this is what we're thinking and we're starting these discussions now because we would probably be looking at the top of my head thinking maybe a June rollout to allow us to get those logistics in place and not only that but higher for that position for the we'll need a building supervisor here for those expanded hours because our best staff is again also 8 to 5 we'll have to hire for that position and then program yeah and then on top of that communicate out to our community have plenty of time to say hey coming in June this is what we're going to do later and longer so we're starting that process now so that's excellent no no that's great news one question is going to be are we going to need an additional resource specialist and if we are we need to start looking at that to such a fact position great question and so looking big picture right so now that we're increasing our hours and increasing more availability now we're looking at the details right right now current staff we are looking at still a 4 to 5 period and what can we do to reduce that and I put some members in my report if you had a chance to look at it and I'll unpack those here in a bit but my oh I guess answer your question is there is definitely a need a growing need for additional resource support and I am going to prepare a proposal not a proposal but I can kind of not identifying the need versus the wants for my budget request this year that I'm going to ask for at least two weeks I'm going to hope for a request to resource specialists and that would knock our way down from four weeks to at least one week and allow us to be available for those on the spots that we can't accommodate right now because of our week so it has to be more available for those things so we were actually kind of breaking down some of the data this morning the leadership team to see to help paint that picture what information do I need to help support that conversation and that request what do you need from the board to back that up because I'm definitely a community resource specialist that same support so once I get this information I will definitely get it in everybody's and that can take those recommendations again I'm not just saying oh hey we would love to have more people right I've got to cut that wage out of that and that's really what it comes down to is availability and at what capacity right again we can't take any of those on the spot appointments that we would love to we just will work not even at capacity but beyond capacity and I'll share some of those numbers here in a bit and the board is to help with those recommendations well I would suggest that you make a motion saying that we support the hospital additional resource specialist that's going to be my request do you want to do that now before we get more information from you that's up to the board let's go go into the 25 budget yeah I guess is that going to say that you expand the hours that 4-5 weeks waiting now starts to go up if you don't have any sort it could yes that way it lists because now we're more available if you're over hours without more staff you're already 4-5 weeks we're pushing that number up we're on the equip to still meet the same amount of appointments with staff members which is on average 3 a day 15 a week 60 that's for me really it is I've done that kind of stuff it's hard work so that's my goal to continue to be proactive looking forward to thinking and of course we're at the moment now but not asking for one now and the way our community is going in 12 more months we needed an additional person so I'm going to ask big and hope for two but again not just for that it cuts that way down waiting list down to a rank and the longer hours you're going to need at least one signal to go up yeah I think two is safe to ask for Robbie I want to kind of case if you say you're hoping to expand those hours yes how would you build with the staff that you have so I get to hire additional staff members that title specifically would be one of two or possibly both a just front desk support customer service and then a building supervisor so we're sure moving forward to the building supervisor because there's more responsibility with that we'll have to not only be that customer service support but also be able to help if they need to set up different rooms if we have one program at 5 o'clock another one starting at 6 we'll help switch those over so good things coming a lot of good things there's been a lot of changes since you came on board honestly in your adjustments moving right along taking care of things I'm very impressed thank you and I'm sorry Lottie you had a question do you want to have this voted on by the time we're talking to Harold or do you want us to vote it on next week and next month I guess what is the board's recommendation for that you know it sounds like there's a lot of support we want that to be able to go into that conversation to go into that board meeting with Harold I would like to have it voted on I'd suggest what do we deal with that when we make a report if we want to make a motion what I've got to say can be done pretty quickly I think we'll go right back to you the other thing that we've been talking about goes along with the data collection that you're talking about I think what we need and I feel I think it's really important to have a data model that I don't have a specific data model in mind but we need to collect information on the population that we're serving and who we are serving so what I'm suggesting is that I would like to see and I've mentioned this before I would like to see your staff and the city marketing staff and whoever else might be role of them develop a survey of the community of a good cross section a good profile of the community and then sample those folks roughly proportional to what the sample would be roughly proportional to the population of the country and then you devise a survey to tap into different surveys survey can be arranged in different ways someone last time suggested you could cover the areas the domain I think it was you John we could organize the survey and the domain that the Boulder County Area Aging Agency did in the survey I think there were six or seven surveys to sample in the survey are people receiving the kinds of services not programs basic services like legal, financial, counseling, suicide whatever all those basic human needs and just leave the program part of the recreation program part of it and I don't know how you want to structure it exactly it seems to me that quarterly goals once you establish what the needs are you could call it a need survey once you establish what the needs are on the basis of that survey then your staff would come up with plans as to how you're going to address those needs and again I don't know exactly what they are and how you would devise it but it's just a structure that you do by area by quarter and then at the end of the year each quarter you go on you evaluate how you're doing you do that at the end of the year and at the end of the year you repeat basically you don't necessarily have to do a survey again but you go through that planning process again so part when you ask the question how many people were referred because of major depression or suicidal areas got an answer does it vary by demographic area and I think the demographic areas are obvious and I know this can be kind of a sensitive area but you're working on by home age sex income level and ethnicity so what you are saying is what we see if I got this okay I want to take this information that's coming from a survey and then the goals are going to be set on the basis of the needs reporting back on a quarterly basis and at the end of the year review those goals and adjust them if it needs to be made for the next year correct you got it how would the survey go on coming out I guess that would be up to the marketing I think the last time when we did the survey didn't they use media they used mail they did not get any very minimal I should say responses by mail by mail majority of the responses were in person that are here at senior center that are advisory board conducted those surveys in person and by mail you know surveys are tough people to respond I know but it's better than not having any information when I say very minimal by mail I think it was at five by snail mail that's a lot of money to go out and it'll be five responses that's not good well that's a basic idea and running out of time here I would just like to go along with this to support this where I just described I think it's something we should continue to talk about and look into I agree we definitely need to go down anything but I think it's a good thing for you so you wanted to refer this to for a further discussion can we bring it up with Harold next time so if I've heard the resource person this morning correctly she said that you guys are going to start tracking your attendance and things like that beginning this year so that's the information we also need I think that we need to I don't know that we need to have to do it with Harold I don't know I think we allow you guys sometimes to say what are we going to do this year are we going to do the first quarter of the second quarter of the third quarter where are we at and then lots dependent on that again being able to update our software and are we bringing in new software kind of thing so we're kind of in that evaluation period as well so a lot of that's dependent but our goal is to hopefully not hopefully it's this year start tracking some of those things to be able to and if what I'm saying is not a media this would be further on down the line I think it's definitely a goal of ours okay well okay if it's part of the goal that's good and we'll defer it for a medium of truth or until you have more information also from your system it would be useful to summarize those domains I mean summarize those and get to forward them yeah the domains well that's one way of doing it they're in this book you don't have one I can send you the information together or at least maybe we've just created some next meeting they're in here where would we get those agency on aging agency on aging okay there is agency on aging I'll send it by and pick up the other thing would be just go through the topical areas of the support services covers the same kind of thing so there's a couple of different ways that we could do that okay you all have my manager's report so I just want to hit on some key highlights as you all know that Robin Vosica has accepted a different position in the city your last day was last Friday last week we conducted interviews for our vacant administrative assistant position when we hired Bianca Costa as our new welcome there's an official as of Monday the 5th Bianca was our office assistant before that before that we saw her from recreation so she's been in the city for a while and we're just very excited for this opportunity for Bianca we have currently posted that vacancy Bianca's previous position the office assistant position as finally more required so that was posted as of Monday as well and I took a peek at it yesterday and I think we had six applicants already so we're ready pretty good also want to inform the board that I currently have had a conversation on meeting with approved architect of the city to discuss building expansions here at the center my goal and recommendation is to see if we can close off that patio area and extend our back offices we're talking about additional staff members to meet the needs of our community right now if that is approved today we have no where to put them right and so with that I would like to create four to five new offices in that if we continue where the offices are to expand towards our room G over here right now our building is in a U shape and so I just like to kind of wall that area off the cross with additional offices that give us four to five additional offices room G that one back here in the corner it's a smaller space it's almost half of this not very functional I'd like to expand that out a little bit to make it around this size a little closer to this size and then in front of that in front of that come closer to us where we're at right now we've I guess this board has not had any meetings in our D and E room it's our largest room with a partition so it's a big space that can house up to I think up to 70, 60, 70 and then if we cut it in half 30, 35 that's entered from the walkway coming in the front door right yeah so when you come to the front door it will be on the right hand side I guess and so that will give us another big room like that for programming as our programming increases so have started that conversation where we can take it yes what happens to the lunch room? it's not impacted will it lose it's windows? yep so when we come out of this room right here and if we go straight back towards the lunch room it's just that side over here okay right or the billiard room the billiard room is where those windows are can you build up here do you care for it? well we won't double check but that's from what I heard it kind of sounded like they could not just because we have two different roofing structures because of the previous expansions I think they would have to take a whole room take a whole room but that's a good idea because they have a little patio out there just don't use it because I'm here all the time right? so just being again as we continue to grow and so that discussion that person is in contact with key players and I can't say who because I don't know who the exact titles I should say to be a part of that discussion for approval for like zoning new things like that just to make sure that everything is okay and so I will follow up with Pam in the next week or so and so by our next meeting I can come back with some information hopefully at that meeting takes place what's been discussed at that point kind of want to share some statistics with you as well so our door count for this door count so we have two entrances combined total of 88,209 visitors this past year so a lot of people come through our doors is that duplicated? no is that duplicated? yes is that duplicated? it's just interest sorry and then also some great things happening here so not only did we have a thousand people come through our door our senior tech connect there's just a lot to highlight there they hosted 192 sessions for our community with a total of 2,695 participants for those programs and with that we have 36 volunteers in that group who provided 5,605 hours of service so they did a lot for us this year yeah and that's why and we're really happy that our friends of Long Island were able to help improve our life by one of those reasons those groups can grow and so we needed better life by those past years and they helped fund that we also did in Perl they donated 1,976 sweaters combination of sweaters, winter hats scarves, infant sleep sacks and blankets that's where they're getting really staggering numbers and they've created 45,904 items and they've done it here so a lot of good things coming out of here as for our recreation programming we offered 280 wellness activities of programs 104 therapeutic recreation programs 138 trips offered and 325 active volunteers supporting our program trips and support this past year we're very fortunate to have so many volunteers helping in different really different capacities here at the senior center we're actually going to expand those opportunities around having to do a little bit more for facing customer service supporting us we're working with Valerie one of our program coordinators to help create those opportunities this year for our volunteers when you go out the magazine is out for the spring we just marched through May and we're currently we're currently working on getting instead of traveling so we've been working with we have a couple different groups around the city hopefully soon here we'll be able to start putting advertising on those trips on those travel trips we're going to go magazines from around the year 4 we're going to be printing at the top of my house we're a lot we print a lot of them we go through all of them and we really do go through we go through all of them yes Bianca this past season we just went out like right at the right outside I was going to say I saw a couple right before the new one was coming out and I laughed I thought don't just have enough I'll give you the new one I'll give you the new one and each box has so also some key highlights for our support and services we've also helped hire in that space for a resource specialist at the LAJ properties and they're not under my umbrella we don't fund that position but we supervise that position because we have a resource specialist here so Brandy Poon supervises Leo and he started a month ago I think he's a month in this position and that's going to help our resource services teams as well they won't be they won't be as much needed to provide the support for LAJ residents here at the senior center because they'll be outside of support there can I just say real quick I know that he was at our place from age 12 on Mondays and just introduced himself I wasn't even with it he came over on Monday for the first time very nice guy very happy about it it's amazing currently at this moment there's no way of this for counseling services of course I can change it any time is he saying it that's just great and this is just it's worth highlighting I'm afraid that in the moment that's the case annual statistics our oh yep I think we go back to yeah our support and services side collectively our resource services team saw 774 new individuals this past year seeking support and again that's the key and I'm going to pull those statistics for since 2020 to help again think that picture of our own why we need additional staff members we're bringing in 774 new people that's great sometimes longer and with that they've made 3,380 contacts 3,380 contacts so that's in person meetings supports or by telephone as well I didn't put this in here and I just wanted to add that so of that that's 3,380 contacts and collectively they've supported 1,358 clients so obviously showing that some of them are duplicate appointments in these our counseling support service team conducted of that our counseling support service teams conducted 1,040 appointments in 2023 so without that 21% of our clients are Spanish readers with those 291 individuals of that 1,358 so definitely be there to make sure that all right he needs a new resource two I'll take two I'm at a rush here can we have a motion that we support the acquisition of two additional resource staff resource specialist I make a motion that we support the acquisition of two or more resource specialists second any discussion all those in favor say aye I maintain a motion for adjournment I make a motion go ahead second all those in favor say aye thank you so much thank you we've all done some really good work so yes and that's something our new board members do as well so I can go grab name tags for everybody your name tags came in I left them on my desk so can I go grab that real quick and I'll grab you and share it on your way out