Edgewater City Council met Tuesday, November 1st, 2022. A quorum was reached with Councilman Donevan attending virtually and Councilman Berg not in attendance.
After the usual business of roll call, the Pledge of Allegiance and consent agenda the meeting moved to updates from Edgewater Chief of Police Eric S. Sonstegard, City Manager Maples, and the Sustainability Board. Chief Sonstegard went first letting the council and community know that last Saturday, the Edgewater Police Department deployed their worn body camera program. He was excited about the program and stated that quite a bit of research went into ensuring the program didn’t just meet any legal requirements, but also met the wants and needs of the community at large. City Manager Maples gave a brief update about attending an awards ceremony where Community Services Director Kit Lammers was honored as Public Works Employee of the Year by the Colorado Chapter of the American Public Works Association. Edgewater also won an award for traffic calming with our lovely new traffic circles. Xerxes Steirer then took the podium to give an update on the Sustainability Board. Mr. Steirer spoke first about the success of the sticks to chips mulching program last Saturday, saying many neighbors took advantage of the program and in doing so both beautified our community and kept a large amount of organic material out of our landfills. Mr. Steirer then moved on to discuss electric vehicles. With assistance from Xcel Energy the Sustainability Board will be coming up with an action plan for electric vehicles focusing on 4 target areas: public infrastructure, home electric vehicles, and the city fleet. There will be a focus group for each of these 4 categories in the future, anyone that wishes to be involved should reach out to Mr. Steirer.
Next up was a presentation about the sidewalks focus groups. The power point presentation was quite informative, and quite dense with tables and charts. Anyone interested in the finer details can watch the meeting recording on the link provided below but the main thrust of the presentation was that Edgewater plans to improve our community’s walkability, safety, accessibility, and comfort by updating and improving our pedestrian infrastructure. Minimum sidewalk width, “California” vs. vertical curbs, and potential building materials were all discussed. The importance of working with homeowners on the updated sidewalks was emphasized repeatedly with assurances that issues such as adult trees in the right of way will be taken under consideration.
Following the sidewalk presentation was another presentation, this time given by Chief Sonstegard about the upcoming implementation of Power Engage, a community interaction tool. Power Engage will be used to measure citizen satisfaction, boost officer morale by sharing positive feedback from the community, and deliver updates on calls and cases to citizens. The citizen satisfaction component entails sending a short survey via text message after certain interactions with the police department. All positive feedback will be posted on a live display in the department to help boost officer morale as well as reinforce positive interactions. Case and call updates will also be shared with citizens via text message when appropriate. Chief Sonstegard stated the goal of Power Engage is to “provide a platinum level of service.” He expects it will be live by late December of this year.
General public comment was short, with Edgewater resident Larry Welshon sharing his concern over some specific language used by Council while discussing a possible minimum wage ordinance during the last City Council meeting.
The Council then moved to the discussion and possible action on the first reading of an ordinance regulating drone use in Edgewater. There was clearly some interest in this ordinance, as evidenced by a fuller than usual crowd in the room. But before the public comment, City Attorney Thad Renaud addressed the room. Stating he had received many communications that generally fell in to two categories: The City lacks the authority to enact such an ordinance, and that since drone use is already regulated by the FAA, the city doesn’t need to regulate drone usage. Saying the later argument ultimately fell on the council to decide he was adamant that the city does, in fact, possess the authority to regulate drone usage within city limits. He referred to a packet that had been distributed containing background and case law to bolster his point. Public comment came next, and 7 people got up to share. None of them agreed. Although all but 1 of the public commenters were not residents of Edgewater, most worked with drones in a professional capacity, and they shared concerns about being able to work in Edgewater under the new ordinance as well as a cascade effect such legislation might have on other municipalities. Council was ultimately swayed, and opted to table the ordinance in favor of workshopping it. However, they also made it clear that the ordinance was in response to several citizen complaints about drone usage in the neighborhood, and that they still very much wished to move forward quickly to address those citizens concerns.
The meeting wrapped up, as it always does, with comments from the members of City Council, including a very powerful statement about the current rise in anti-semitism from Councilwoman Hannah Gay Keao. The next meeting of City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, November 15th at 6:30 P.M.
I think it’s important for readers to know that the Edgewater Collective has close
ties with the government of our little city. It receives significant funding from the
City Council. What is more, sitting Councilman, Hannah Gay Keao is a board
member of Edgewater Collective. This is mentioned because the content of the
Edgewater ECHO should be understood to be the voice of, or perhaps, an echo
of City policy as opposed to an independent and neutral voice of the people.
Looking at the ECHO’s “reporting” from November 1, 2022 I note the following
missing content that I think should be included and interestingly all of which might
be said to be critical of the City:
1. The extraordinary cost of sidewalk improvement that was discussed at the
meeting.
2. Chief Sonstegard’s disregard of older citizens who either use flip phones or are
not savvy enough to use smart phones effectively and thus cutting them out of
the new Power Engage feedback system.
3. Specifics of the public comment where I criticized Councilman Donavan’s cavalier comment about doing “whatever they can get away with” in terms of minimum wage and my comments regarding Mayor Beltrone’s attempt to ramrod the Council in the previous meeting to consider the minimum wage ordinance prematurely.
4. The normally reserved city attorney’s tirade about citizen concerns regarding a
proposed drone ordinance. While it is true that most were not Edgewater citizens,
they are our neighbors and as members of the gathered public they should not
be belittled by city staff.
5. Councilors routinely make speeches during Council Comments, which is their
right. Councilman Gay Keao’s comments were highlighted and glorified with the
term “very powerful”. Why not the others? Surely it’s not because they are not
Board members of The Edgewater Collective.