>> Hi everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer, welcome to "Colorado Inside Out" on July 21st.

This is a big week for the city of Denver and for Colorado as well since Denver is the capital of the state and where much of the state's business takes place.

We now have our 46th mayor, Mike Johnston.

We have Patty Calhoun, Eric Sondermann, a columnist, and also, Alton Dillard.

He was an elections spokesperson and Laura Carno, executive director of "Faster Colorado."

Let's start with the future of the state.

Having someone new in the mayor's office for the first time in 12 years.

Patty?

>> It is exciting to have someone new in office after 12 years.

You look back very slowly if you watch "Denver rising" over the last 12 years and it has been really, really a tough time for Denver.

You remember coming out of the recession, but here they come pushing things along.

And now we kind of lead with this weird narrative of Denver in decay.

So the first day was great.

You had a very good swearing in ceremony.

And you look at what the Denver performing arts complex does these days and it is very active.

That is great.

They went on to have a party down by union station.

You look at how union station has grown.

The renovation was not completed, and there is a great bunch of local bands and entertainers.

There is a lot of good atmosphere downtown.

I would say that Denver is not in decay, but it is a good time for Denver to just take stock in what it is doing and push forward.

>> I thought it was a neat celebration and Denver needed a fresh start.

12 years is a long time.

I have been on record for a long time saying third terms should not be.

We should out law those and Mike Johnston would help.

Eight years was plenty.

The last four was particularly tough for Denver and it doesn't all fall on Michael Hancock's desk, but we had a pandemic and everything that flowed out of the pandemic.

The movie that Patty referenced was self aggrandizement.

I think that Denver rising is the first eight years of the Denver administration.

Denver falling or sinking would be the sequel to cover the more recent years of that at min straight nap is not all on Hancock.

I'm glad there was a big celebration and a big party because there is hard work ahead for Michael Hancock and also a new city council that is substantially changing city council and they all have a lot on their plaits.

Denver is invested in them.

>> We're used to having Michael in office, but it is Michael Johnston.

>> You worked for city government for so long, what is going through your mind this week?

>> What is going through my mind is with team Johnston coming in, this is where pie meets sky.

There is a grand vision.

As someone that has worked in municipal government I'm very aware of the grind of municipal government.

So hearing the grand vision, and knowing that at the staff level you have a lot of hard working city employees.

But some of those city employees are very entrenched.

And I will be totally transparent.

I there was 17 years and I was able to roll with the punches.

One of the things that I would advise the incoming team to do is to avail themselves of the city's peek academy.

They have improvement techniques and they can drop a rapid improvement team into different agencies.

And that is how they will bridge the gap with someone who has done the same thing the same way for 30 years.

>> Something that I think will be interesting to watch, it was well reported that he hired a chief of staff with a political background rather than an administration of government and Denver is a huge city that is very complex.

There is lots of problems.

It led to speculation that this is day one of Johnston's campaign for governor.

That he is keeping the political focus around him as opposed to the, you know, governing focus.

It will be interesting to see how that affects decisions made in the coming months.

>> Let's dive deeper and see how this coming Monday, the 24th, the city's emergency operation center will work to assist the city's homeless.

>> I think Alton has more details on what this emergency declaration means in terms of a very tangible how the city operates emergency center responds.

I think this was an interesting play by Mike Johnston.

Let me get the last name correct this time, by Mike Johnston on his first full day in office to dramatize the issue.

It was a centerpiece of his campaign.

It will be a significant measuring stick of the success of the Johnston administration.

He set a high an ambitious bar out there and people are going to hold him accountable to that bar.

The proof will be in the putting for if he can deliver to end homelessness or very tangibly reduce homelessness.

I think there is more symbolic value more than anything else.

The city of portland has been in an emergency declaration since 2015 that has been renewed five or six times and homelessness is nowhere near under control in portland and it continues to expand.

The declaration itself doesn't do anything, it is everything that will now follow.

>> When you have an emergency declaration like this essentially you're in a mode called "save the city."

It doesn't make any difference if you're a city attorney, clerk and recorder, parks and rec that all goes out the window.

You're detailed to save the city response.

So they help free up funding, but it also pulls those resources together.

So here is a couple of for instances.

The of course activated for some long term thing like a COVID response.

But there is also times like the still unsolved Emerson street fire, the bomb cyclone of a few years ago.

You know?

Something as simple as like okay, we have a power outage in this senior high-rise.

Let's grab some buses.

Who do you get them from?

There is representation from the city budget officer in case they have to write a quick check to make some of these things happen as far as pulling in resources.

We have a new city council.

There is a city council liaison out there.

So if you ever get a chance to just even good it will you will see a bunker full of people in color coded vests and each of them, including the folks in the communications wing, have a specific duty.

It is one of the things I always found so interesting.

Like you truly are in "save the city mode."

That is why I'm quoting in a few places on the issue of homelessness that is not in my swim lane, but I was on duty in the pandemic when they opened up the national western center and the coliseum that is another example of how you rapidly respond to an issue.

>> Interesting, thanks, Laura?

>> I look at the potential solutions to homelessness and obviously nobody completely figured this out, but there is a lot of controversy about housing first and if this is really the thing that will help.

We all want our neighbors to be warm, safe, and dry.

That is a given.

But is this the way to do it by just providing housing without dealing with the under lying causes.

There is mental illness, addiction, and all kinds of things like that that in the mayor's proclamation I wasn't seeing anything that was addressing the underlying causes.

So if you provide safe housing to keep them warm, safe, and dry that is a thing.

But if you don't address the underlying things then what?

The other thing I thought was interesting is he said when you land, we're going to give you a home and it sounded like almost the marijuana thing, you know, we're the first in the nation on recreational marijuana, come on in we have marijuana.

We have housing for homeless.

We thought there was interesting things in there that we're going to see how they play out but I'm not sure if it is addressing the underlying issue for sure.

>> Patty?

>> He mentioned going out into the communication, all 78 neighborhoods, which they should do anyway, but the council people were up there as well so everyone will be involved and given the opportunity to speak.

One of the hallmarks of his plan is to create safe camping sites or tiny villages, he talked about at least 20, and they identified 197 different possible places they could go.

He will get a lot of blow back.

To get out there and be aggressive is important.

He moved in Cole Chandler who was just most recently at the state.

But he launched the tiny villages movement here, the safe camping sites.

There was indeed access to services like mental health issues, and those were hallmarks of those areas.

He will be pushing that.

Will it work?

Will we hear a lot of wining?

The next couple days?

Yeah.

>> Do we know when the meetings in the neighborhoods will happen?

>> I think as soon as next week.

>> It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

The seventh item on the action plan on homelessness is to expand collaboration locally and regionally, but the local collaboration is in question in one other area.

On Monday a city council says they won't deploy officers to Denver for protests until they agree to protect them.

That is kind of a big -- to Denver, isn't it?

>> Yes, it is.

For a couple of reasons.

I'm not an attorney, but I know bean of my tenure in city government how fraught terms like that are.

I have seen large contracts come to a screeching halt over that kind of language.

The thing that is interesting to me is that remember, Denver is a home rule city and county with a strong mayor form of government.

In Aurora I have seen his rise to be fairly fascinating.

How would someone conservative like Coffman get elected in a diverse city like Aurora.

When Coffman was in Congress, he spent a lot of time in the immigrant communities, the refugee communities, communities of color.

That will give him a little bit of credit on this.

I know Aurora feels they got left holding the bag.

We sent our officers in trying to help you out, and it sounds like there is still a question if it was just Denver officers or some of the Aurora ones that did, we'll see how it shakes out legally, but when you talk about reasonable response and even back to homelessness quickly, seeing how Douglas county and some of these folks are saying we're getting a handle on this now.

It shows 60 and we're going to get that dealt with.

>> It's not like it is costs coming from areas where no crime is happening, Aurora has it's own issues.

So to have a mutual aid contract with Denver or whatever, three is always all kinds of things in these mutual aid contracts.

But it's not like nothing is happening in Aurora.

So for Aurora to give up Officers to something big in Denver, it is kind of a big thing because they have their own problems to deal with.

I don't blame the city of Aurora and Mayor Coffman for saying hey, we have folks we need to look out for.

We have our own budget and liability insurance, and all of that stuff they need to look out for.

I don't blame them for saying hang on for a second, let's look at what this mutual aid agreement looks like so it works for both halves.

>> Maybe the new administration can have new talks.

>> They definitely need to talk, and mane Alton knows, 15 years ago when the DNC was here you had all of this metro cooperation and all of this communication that if some disaster happened, they would certainly open more than just the emergency rooms.

But these police departments had to know how to communicate with each other.

They had to know what roles were.

Denver had different rules than Aurora in 2020 and why didn't Denver tell you for what you could do in the way of non-lethal weapons.

And when you talk about Aurora, they had the Elijah McClain protests at the same time.

Why did the police officers and commanders not get on the same page to talk about what they could or couldn't do.

It is still a big mystery and I put that on Denver.

>> I think that Laura's point in particular is well taken.

It's not like Aurora is sitting out there with all of this excess capacity and no need for law enforcement.

Very much to the contrary.

The whole thing strikes me a a little bit of a no-brainer.

I come down on Aurora and Mike Coffman's side on this.

If Denver is asking and needing this kind of assistant, and another city, Aurora or another sir burr ban city is offering that kind of assistance in the way of police officers then Denver can, you know, step up to the plate.

It is Denver's problem.

They should step up to the plate and provide liability protection and whatever else is required here.

I think this whole issue of metropolitan cooperation, the bigger issue, is going to be something that maybe has languished a bit in recent years.

It was a calling card for John Hickenlooper when he was mayor.

It was his central calling card.

It has not been the calling card of the mayor over recent years not to say there have not been plenty examples of Hancock and cooperation.

But Johnston has his hands full in Denver, but I think as he comes fully in charge of the Denver rank, I think he will need to venture out and build those relationships.

>> Let's talk about something affecting everyone in every county, the property tax assessments.

It shot up 300%.

>> Yeah, I was at a meeting last night with my county assessor.

She looked exhausted.

She talked about the numbers just in my small rural county and the big counties that are out of control.

What that tells you is this issue is hitting absolutely everybody including people that rent because property tax increases are pushed along to renters.

It is hitting everybody.

Prop HH on the ballot in November, it is being sold as rainbows and unicorns and we're going to reduce your property taxes.

The -- that is the first part of it.

What follows after is and you're giving up your taxpayer refunds.

Under out taxpayer rights.

They did some polling, what do people think on the ballot language?

And all of a sudden it is upside down for the HH proponent.

I think there will be a lot of money on both sides and I say voter be ware here.

>> Everyone is using food analogies, but I'm going to say sports.

It is a hail Mary to get HH on the ballot.

They did not work out this crunch with the high assessments they knew were coming.

They just know they saw this huge valuation coming through.

So you have to feel bad for these assessors officers that have until the 15th of August to go through this and then you will have upset people that are not expected today protest.

You have people going into the November vote really upset with all of their elected officials and trying to figure out exactly what that ballot measure means.

>> I think the whole issue is the top of the props in Colorado these days.

There is crimes, homelessness, cost of living issues, marijuana, property taxes are part of the cost of living issue.

I think in terms of issues that keep democrats, starting with the governor and on down maybe up at night worrying about their majority or their hold on power.

Their security blanket is that they're inept, but it is the potential for a property tax revolt.

This poll is a very interesting poll and I think it is a problematic poll for the proponents of HH if the public reaction is that the more they know the less inclined they are to support it, that is a tough place to be here 3.5 months or whatever it is.

Before the election.

>> When I say HH and I really have to agree with Laura's point here, it is one of those things that affects everybody.

It reminds me of the debt ceiling discussions.

When you're missing with the billionaires money and also John six-pack's money?

That's an issue.

The thing that is slightly heartening is that people as they read are becoming more informed.

If people read we would not have paper in the first place if is nice to know that people are taking a slightly deeper dive on this and you're right, everyone ran to their assessors.

Everybody is reaching out to the realtors or whatever doing their own comps because they're big scary number.

And Andrew Kenny says there is a belief that some of this is a straw man to shore up the safe structure funding infrastructure.

So there is a lot that comes out about this issue in the next couple months and then ballots hit 22 days beyond reelection.

>> Thank you, I think it is our duty at this table to talk about HH and get people informed before election day.

>> Could kill our viewership, though.

>> No.

All right, we'll talk about this.

Now it is time to point out highs and lows of the week.

Patty, I'll start with you with a low of the week.

>> I have to go with Lauren Bobbet.

She proceeded to criticize several books that are really nice kids books, we just didn't need her reviews.

>> Okay, I didn't hear about that one.

>> I missed her book list.

>> I'll send it to you.

>> I'll make sure to grab that for my recommended reading.

On the other side of the aisle, there is a flip out going on that I think is way premature for various democratic interest groups about the no labels effort that could, and we'll see if it results in anything, but it is the idea of a viable third political party that is more unifying and healing and maybe start to move us past this toxic polarization that we're into.

There is time for this to play out.

There is an organized effort in the part of the effort before it launches off of the ground.

>> I will take mine out of the world of politics and I will quote my good friend and former state Senator Peter Graff when he says nothing works and nobody works.

Customer service is in the tank.

I went to a lodge in winter park, they offered a $10 breakfast, could not find anyone to pay.

Went to the front counter to settle up, went down the next morning and restaurant was closed.

Went down the next day and they said it is on the house.

We're past the height of the pandemic where, and I understand that restaurants and service industry and stuff work, but please, people, let's bring it back a little.

>> I had an experience where I was like do you want us to pay or should we just leave?

And they said please come back to us.

>> The Rockies reported they're seeing an increase of 40% of people who need food.

While it is good for all of us to help our neighbors in need, government at every level needs to look at what they're doing to make things more expensive.

Rooftop gardens, all of that stuff that adds a little bit here and there that makes everything more expensive for people.

>> I'm said that only Alton and I paid attention to the "Barbie" memo.

It was created by a Coloradoan.

>> Do they have family still here?

>> Yes.

>> I like the pink on the both of you.

>> We last a neighbor where we live, our next door neighbor, a woman named Linda Finnegan died suddenly a week ago.

Her husband, big, is a regular viewer and our thoughts are with you.

On a positive note, we have Sky Leech who is watching the show today.

I wish there was more people like her that had an interest in media and public affairs.

>> And mine is that I'm turning the big 60 at the time of this taping.

>> Oh, excellent!

Happy birthday!

>> Thank you, as I like to say, the mind says 40, the back says 80, and I'm splitting the difference.

>> Still younger than Barbie.

>> Speaking of helping our neighbors, there is a critical shortage of blood.

This is something that nearly everybody can get involved with to give blood.

My husband and I are going in next week for our next bout and it helps accident victims, surgeries, babies, it helps everybody.

None of it goes to waste.

Call of your local blood bank and give blood.

>> Thank you, my baby when she was younger needed a blood transfusion.

>> Since released last week a documentary has captured the spirit of Coloradoans that lead to us getting our major league team, the Rockies.

That will be Monday night at 8:00.

I hope you will catch that hour long program, not 94 minutes, just 58 minutes.

Thank you for watching this 30 minute program or listening on the pod cast.

I'm Kyle Dyer, we'll see you next week on PBS12.

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