Broomfield City Council Focus Session, You need to be heard!

In the last few months, the Broomfield City Council has made statements about what the "top priorities" are for Broomfield.

They told us that public safety was THE top priority as they kept the largest property tax increase in state history to pay for a new police department building. (Side note, construction on the new police department build will not start until 2027 at the earliest).

They were also recently presented with information about dire condition that the the city's budget is in when it comes to funding the city's water infrastructure (more on that later in this newsletter).

Now, rather than really focusing on the challenges that they've said are a priority, or have been told by city staff really need to be a priority, the City Council will hold a "focus session" at the Crescent Grange on Friday and Saturday, March 1^st and 2^nd, 2024.

So, what's on their agenda for their focus session?

Friday, March 1, 2024

1) Air Quality Monitoring (oil and gas): 

9:00 A.M - 10:30 A.M., 

2) Self-Sufficient Wage (minimum wage): 

10:45 A.M. - 12:15 P.M.

3) Rental Registration (charging landlords more money): 

1:15 P.M. to 2:45 P.M.

4) Best-Value Contracting (telling businesses who to hire, how much to pay them, etc):

3:00 P.M. to 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

5) Immigrant-Friendly Cities (DEAI, Workforce Development, etc.): 

9:30 A.M. - 11:00 A.M.

The City Council is their pushing progressive ideas rather than focusing on what is best for Broomfield citizens. Instead of focusing on your safety like they said was their top priority, they are bending Broomfield towards their ideals. Their desire is that they make every decision on whether you can open a business, rent your property, or employ your neighbor.

It should be self-evident how destructive their ideas are, below are some thoughts on how bad they can be.

Minimum Wage:

A wage is a price agreed upon between the employer and the employee. It will follow the same supply and demand laws that the price for a product follows.

In a free-market economy, a wage is set based on many factors:

1. The skill level of the employee
2. The job description and the skill level needed for that position
3. Employees who produce more are worth more to the employer

America allows people who gain more skills to move up in the hierarchy of employment and businesses can do this without government intervention:

1. Teenagers work at lower-wage jobs until they gain more skills and then move up in the company
2. High-school graduates go to college or a trade school to gain the next level of skills and can earn more than teenagers or those who just graduate from high school
3. If you work in a company and come up with a new process, or think about how to make the company more money, you can rise into new and better paid positions

Unintended consequences - we've all seen this before, it doesn't work because:

1. Employer finds lower cost alternatives: robots, make the item smaller, etc.
2. Imposing minimum wage creates unemployment
3. Employers have to charge more to cover cost of minimum wage and less of the product will be sold
4. It will drive employers out of business and drive more people into the streets

Rental Registration:

Imposes a fee on the landlord to subsidize housing and create more control over a business. These ideas are discussed in Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. We already see housing starts declining in the story that follows this article, do we need more government interference to drive these numbers lower?

Intended consequences:

1. this is supposed to protect tenants from extortion and exploitation
2. help renters with affordability

What really happens:

1. Encourages wasteful use of space by subsidizing rent instead of taking a roommate
2. New housing will not be built because capital is diverted from profits to subsidies
3. Eventually properties will fall into disrepair because capital cannot be reinvested into buildings, it is diverted to subsidies
4. Builders and owners of low-rent housing are discouraged and penalized
5. Erosion of city revenues
6. Houses/Apartments are rented at a rate that does not pay back the actual costs of construction and operation
7. Everybody else (taxpayer) is paying for part of their rent
8. Once implemented it is hard to get rid of resulting in scarcity of the product

The state legislature also wants to increase property taxes on short-term rentals in HB24-1299.

Best-Value Contracting:

Council's description is to, "Align our contracting practices with community priorities. This would include basing contracts on factors such as hiring practices/livable

wages (union?), sustainability practices, local ties, minority ownership, etc."

1. This promotes discrimination and is unfair
2. This rates a business on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) outcomes instead of whether they offer the best product for the best price and this policy will result in legal challenges
3. Picks winners and losers and will force more businesses out of Broomfield
4. Unsustainable

Immigrant Friendly Cities Programming:

The description for this session, to be lead by Councilmember Henkel is down right offensive. The summary for the session states in part that that "Broomfield has its own war-torn past that created refugees in the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, we are on the map now as a place of refuge for those fleeing violence worldwide due to an overwhelming and patriotic volunteerism within our own community, especially those following their faith values."

Under this guise, the City Council want to focus on Broomfield paying for what the City Council sees as past transgressions by becoming more inclusive by the development and Emergency Operation Plans that are immigrant friendly while forcing you to pay for the well-being of others at your expense.

Similar desires have been in the news recently, including the Lakewood City Council which is pushing on the immigration issue. They are programming you to continue to pay for others' needs instead of focusing your money on your family.

Bad policy consequences:

1. "Helping" illegal immigrants by spending your tax dollars
2. DEAI efforts are discriminatory by nature
3. Instead of helping residents, homeless, and American citizens, city council has decided to help illegal immigrants who broke our laws to come here
4. There is already a housing shortage, this will not help
5. Education is facing another challenge after the pandemic shut-down learning opportunities for kids

Again, we need to show up at their focus session and demand our voice be heard. Their focus should be on what is a priority Broomfield citizens, not their progressive agendas.

1st Bank Center...

The City Council will be discussing the demolition timeline at the February 27, 2024 meeting. There are no details in the memorandum. We will provide an update in the next newsletter.

Legislative Session...

As of last week, 502 bills have been introduced, here are only a couple:

• HB24-1057 Prohibit Algorithmic Devices Used for Rent Setting
• HB24-1071 Name Change to Conform to Gender Identity
• HB24-1124 Discrimination in Places of Public Accommodation
• HB24-1175 Local Governments Rights to Property for Affordable Housing 

Here is a condensed list of the current bills.

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