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All in Adams -- Town Hall Recap
23 Plays12 days ago
On Monday, August, 25th County Commissioners held a Community Concerns Town Hall event at Anythink Library, Huron St. On this episode of All in Adams, Commissioners Baca and Duran Mullica discuss some of the most pressing issues brought forth by our residents.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'All In Adams'
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to All In Adams, the official podcast of Adams County Government, where we're all in for our residents, our employees, and our community. So whether you live here, work here, or you just want to know more about what makes Adams County a great place to be, thanks for tuning in.
00:00:21
Speaker
We're all in, Adams.
Meet the Guests: Commissioners Lynn Baca and Julie Duran-Mollica
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome back to the All In Adams podcast. I'm your host, Nikki Wellander, Press Secretary for Adams County. Today, i am joined by the chair of our Board of County Commissioners, Lynn Baca, and the vice chair, Commissioner Julie Duran-Mollica.
Community Town Hall Highlights
00:00:36
Speaker
We're here to recap our most recent community town hall, one where our residents came together to share ideas, ask questions, and talk through some of the key issues that are facing our communities and our neighborhoods, like code compliance, public works and streets, communications and public safety.
00:00:52
Speaker
We'll touch on what's coming next as well and how residents can keep engaging with us. Commissioners, thank you both so much for being here. Thanks for having us. Thanks having us. You're welcome. Absolutely. So how do you think that our most recent town hall went overall, Commissioner Baca?
00:01:06
Speaker
It was great. So we had our ah first in-person town hall as a board. it was at Anythink Library on Huron. So we tried to have the locations that where we meet residents where they're at. So we try to make these very neighborly rather than have everyone come to the government center or some other location.
00:01:26
Speaker
So it was great. We had about 40 to 50 residents in attendance. We also had some that joined us online um and many staff members that were there providing resources. So it was great. We did change the format. So there was a lot of Q&A at this first in-person town hall for the board.
00:01:43
Speaker
Awesome. You mentioned we had residents joining us online.
Technology Enhancements for Engagement
00:01:46
Speaker
This was the first time that we have live streamed one of our town halls on YouTube. And it is available for anyone to view on our YouTube channel, which is Adams County CO Government.
00:01:57
Speaker
Commissioner Molica, how did our very first live stream go? I think it actually went pretty well. So live streaming, the work that we do has been a new theme of this year. And so was excited that we were able to incorporate that into the town hall as well.
00:02:11
Speaker
We had about 43 unique viewers. So doesn't sound like a crazy amount, but it's a lot to us. Those are 43 individuals that were able to join the town hall without physically having to drive there, having to find childcare, having to reschedule their lives around us. So I think that that's what's most important.
00:02:32
Speaker
um Also, it really allows us to just live by those values of transparency and accountability um so that everybody can be involved in our government and not just those that it magically works out for everything.
00:02:46
Speaker
All the pieces fall in place for that one evening. It's, it's a lot life's hard. So it was great that we were able to ah manage a live stream. So thanks to the team for making that happen. Thank you for supporting that and for wanting to make sure that we're reaching more people who, like you said, may not be able to come in person for so many different reasons. And and like you said, Commissioner Baca, there were 40 to 50 people in the room and we reached another 40 unique individual people online. So we more than doubled our town hall attendance by doing it live. And we that doesn't also count all of the people that have viewed it online since.
00:03:19
Speaker
And anybody can view it now too. So it's It's got some staying power and all those questions can continue to be answered, which is pretty cool. Yeah. So Commissioner Bacher, earlier this year, we also hosted a telephone town hall.
00:03:31
Speaker
um How do you think that that event helped set the stage for this year's slate of community conversations that we are having? Yeah, so we had a telephone town hall, as you said earlier this year.
00:03:43
Speaker
um What we heard from residents immediately following that is that they wanted in-person engagement. So we were not able to pivot for that first one. We had already planned it. It was already well ah ah on its way, um but we did pivot for the second one. And I think what we're hearing from residents is that they want to be heard about issues that are important to them um in their neighborhood, in their, you know, workplace.
00:04:09
Speaker
mostly in their neighborhood, what's important to them and their families. um The county, I will just say, is 1,200 square miles. So the the varying degrees of service, service delivery, resources, um it looks different. So if you look at Eastern Adams County, we just found out recently in conversations that...
00:04:29
Speaker
They have a lot of bridges. So we have about 110 bridges in Eastern Adams County. um Transportation looks very different. they They have a lot of dirt roads and collector streets in Eastern Adams.
00:04:41
Speaker
um We have a lot of interstates that run through the western portion of the county. we have a lot of different... um higher dense cities that are in the western portion of
Diversity in Leadership and Staff
00:04:50
Speaker
the county. So it's really important that we hear each unique individual participate in our town telephone town halls or an in-person town hall so staff can address them specifically. um Of course, generally what the program is, but specifically for that particular resident that came forward.
00:05:07
Speaker
And I think one of the things that was so cool about that first telephone town hall is it really showed us that doing this in multiple formats does let us reach people in so many different ways. And this was our first in-person town hall for our brand new county manager, Dionne Stroder.
00:05:21
Speaker
And she was joined by other members of our executive leadership team as well as Some of our elected officials from our other departments like Sheriff Gene Claps, Deputy Assessor Thomas Swingle.
00:05:32
Speaker
Why for y'all do you think it's so important to have other county leaders alongside the board addressing some of these concerns that our residents are bringing forward? And Commissioner Moloka, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I think that the way that we really wanted to approach this town hall was make it primarily a question and answers segment. um That's definitely some feedback that the county has gotten in the past is more time for Q&A.
00:05:57
Speaker
And so the entire presentation was Q and A. um With that, you know, it's great to have a team approach. We don't know what kind of questions are gonna come forward. We obviously have a really good idea of what are some of the hot topics going on in the county.
00:06:12
Speaker
And so having other team members from other departments helps us just make sure that we have the right people there to answer the question. Of course, the sheriff is um always going to be a hot topic.
00:06:24
Speaker
People love to talk about public safety and the work that he has going on. so it was great to have him there as well. But yeah, I mean, people don't necessarily maybe understand or see that there's differences in the offices that we represent, right? We're all each individual elected offices, but to the people of Adams County,
00:06:43
Speaker
We're one entity. And so it's great when we have those opportunities to pull together like that.
Direct Resident Engagement
00:06:49
Speaker
Absolutely. And this was also, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was going to say this was also one of the first times that we had a really expanded presence of resource tables from some of our different departments, like human services and community economic development, the health department, community and safety and wellbeing. And I know that I am probably not listing a couple, but we had, I think we had six different resource tables there and ready to make sure they were having one-on-one conversations with the residents who were there. um
00:07:15
Speaker
Why do y'all feel it was important for us to make sure we were having the opportunity for people to have those conversations with staff who are directly working on some of these issues? So I'll go ahead and start and then we can go over to Julie as well.
00:07:28
Speaker
um I think it's important to have those resource tables is we do programming. for our residents and it's important that they stay engaged. Like what is available for them through the health department.
00:07:41
Speaker
um Our planning department was there. we have a lot of planning. Again, we're 1200 square miles. We have different studies happening um and we really want the citizens input. So if we're doing ah countywide safety study or we're gonna change um some other regulations, we really want um not only residents but sometimes businesses as well. And we have a business town call coming up in October.
00:08:04
Speaker
So what we, the work that we do, we want to make sure that it connects to our community and that we have it available where they're at. Um, and where they're at that one time was at the telephone town or at the town hall in person and at the Huron anything.
00:08:20
Speaker
Mr. Bolica, what were your thoughts on making sure that we had all those resources available? Yeah, you know what? It actually came in handy. i was talking to a resident and before the actual meeting started, and they had an interesting question, and I actually didn't even know where to direct them, which department it would fall in. Sometimes there's questions like that.
00:08:37
Speaker
And so I just went up to any table. I'm like, all right, somebody help me. I have a we have a great question here. Where do we go? And so I think it's great to have multiple departments represented because sometimes you don't know who to ask. And everyone was great and we were able to find the right resources. But having, again, the diversity of voices helps just make sure that we're able to, you know, answer those questions as they come up.
00:09:01
Speaker
I think it was really cool to see all those conversations, like you said, before the town hall even started yeah and afterward. And it seemed like there was so much additional engagement that happened with all of the teams that were there. Yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah. There was a lot of follow up, which was great. Yes, absolutely. And one theme that we heard a lot about and we mentioned the community and safety, community safety and well-being team that had a table there. um Neighborhoods, code compliance. um That was a theme that we had a lot of questions about.
00:09:26
Speaker
What were some of the things that our residents shared and how um are we responding to some of those those questions? You know, we had quite a few residents that had very specific questions around, you know, their neighborhood that they wanted to follow up with. Again, it was great to have staff on site to respond to those right away.
00:09:45
Speaker
Another great thing was just being able to, you know, open your phone and then look at the map and, you know, like that one-on-one interaction versus social. Sending an email to somebody and trying to schedule a call. I mean, it was just great to have those resources on site um because then you could just get a full scope of what the problem was.
00:10:05
Speaker
Now, we had lots of follow up from the town hall, which was great. And I think each of those cases are going to be, you know, followed up with with each of with each individual as they come forward. But, you know, it's again, great to have
Tools and Feedback for Community Problem Solving
00:10:19
Speaker
everyone together. we talked a lot about the C Click Fix app.
00:10:23
Speaker
I think that came up, I don't know, five or six times during our conversation. And so, you know, how do we use it? How do you find it? Some people wanted to download it um at the event or following after. So, I mean, again, just a ah great way to pull together a team.
00:10:40
Speaker
Absolutely. And Commissioner Baca, you already talked a little bit about the diversity of roads that we see across the county. And I think that that was something that came up quite a bit, too, is what our public works team sees, the different questions that people in our community have about ownership of roads, whether it's a state road or a local road.
00:10:58
Speaker
What were some of the questions and concerns that were raised about streets and roads here in Adams County? So the county is we've invested a lot in our infrastructure. um so we're about $30 million dollars um in our infrastructure. I think that's just annually in eastern Adams County.
00:11:14
Speaker
um What was really interesting is that we had one resident. specifically ask about a roadway. And just because you're in Adams County, we don't own all the roads and we don't maintain all the roads.
00:11:26
Speaker
So that particular roadway actually happened to be a state roadway. So I know as you drive all of the cities, having come up through city council, we want to make it smooth that it's not so obvious you're leaving Adams County, you're on a state road, you're on a city road, you're back to a state road.
00:11:43
Speaker
um But it's important as a user to identify what we can identify what part of the roadway so we can maintain it, we can go out and take corrective action, or we can work with our um partners, mostly CDOT, on whether it's fixing potholes or it's you know doing some crack sealant.
00:12:03
Speaker
So we do have really great relationships with our cities um also at CDOT. And so we want to hear from all residents, no matter whose roadway it is. so then we can either handle it or we can share out.
00:12:15
Speaker
Definitely. And I think that that that's a perfect segue into something I'm really curious about y'all's perspective on, which is how does hearing directly from residents at events like this help guide your work as commissioners? And you mentioned the partnerships, but I'm really curious about what happens after these kind of events and how does this move forward into y'all's daily work?
00:12:37
Speaker
um I'll start. I'll start. i You know, hearing from residents is why we have these jobs, right? It's taking in that feedback and using that feedback to redirect the way that we operate.
00:12:49
Speaker
um One of the things that I heard loud and clear again um at this ah town hall is our need to have better translation services.
00:13:00
Speaker
We have a lot of Spanish speaking members in our community And yes, we did have some resources and staff on site. We could always have a better process. And so um i think it's just really understanding where people are coming from, what issues matter most to them. That helps us when we need to make those daily decisions in how this county moves forward. So, so important.
00:13:27
Speaker
I think the whole Huron format for the town hall, that recommendation came directly from a resident, that they didn't want to see a canned presentation that has been how we were approaching town halls. They wanted um to have more Q&A, more discussion with the board.
00:13:47
Speaker
And so we started right away of just going to Q&A to the audience. We had also members that signed up that they were going to watch. They had an opportunity to submit written questions, and we were able to get to some of those questions.
00:14:00
Speaker
I did run into um a resident that submitted a question. um at the local coffee shop in Brighton and said, you know, are those, were you real? We, we did ask her question and she said, how did that resonate in the room? And I said, I think all of the residents that were there were interested in everyone else, the question and also the response like, Oh, maybe I didn't think about roads or I didn't think about asking about the health department.
00:14:26
Speaker
Um, So the Q&A was great. um And I really appreciate that. And that came directly from a resident. So that type of engagement with the board, with our staff, if you have a suggestion, we're here and we're open to hear about it.
00:14:41
Speaker
So taking all of that momentum and all of the lessons learned and everything that sounds like went really well from this last town hall and the things that we learned that we can improve on and continue to do better for our community.
00:14:55
Speaker
Let's look ahead and let's share a little bit about the upcoming business focus town hall and the opportunities that our business community has to join us to learn a little bit more about the services we provide for them.
00:15:06
Speaker
So Commissioner Molica, can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. Our next business focus town hall is going to be Monday, September 29th. So it's going to be co-hosted.
00:15:16
Speaker
with our community and economic development team and the Adams County Regional Economic Partnership, ACREP. I needed to make sure that I said that appropriately. I always call them ACREP.
00:15:28
Speaker
I don't actually know their full name. So, but they're a great team and it's going to be exciting to focus on resource challenges and actually hearing from our business community.
00:15:39
Speaker
um And so I'm really looking forward to it. I do have to put a plug out there, though. We will be wrapped up before the Broncos Monday night football kickoff. So please tune in even if you're a Broncos fan. We promise we won't hold you too long.
00:15:53
Speaker
Absolutely. We will be doing this one in person and live streaming again. So if you're really nervous about that kickoff, you can you can tune in on the live stream and that way you can make sure.
00:16:04
Speaker
yeah but we will be and we're going to tailgate theme it as well. So we're going to have the the kind of football snacks for that in-person experience. So you might not be going to an actual tailgate, but you'll be tailgating with us instead.
00:16:17
Speaker
So we've got kind of that dual experience. it Yeah, absolutely. And we're planning so far out is before the Broncos announced your schedule. Yes, exactly. We would not do this intentionally.
00:16:29
Speaker
and So the last thing I kind of want to close on here is why are these town halls, including ones that are specific to our business community, including ones that have a little bit different of a way of doing it, like a telephone town hall.
00:16:40
Speaker
Why are these so critical for our future as Adams County and for our community? You know, the there's a lot of growth coming to Adams County. And with growth, there's a lot of opportunity. There's also a lot of challenges for our residents, um whether it's housing or food scarcity.
00:16:58
Speaker
And we want to hear about all of it. In the business town hall, residents are welcome to attend. um What are the challenges? I think it's important that the business community share their challenges and residents also understand and hear that if they have time um and that we're willing to listen to business. And we're also willing to um listen to our residents. I think that that's just really critical that we continue to have these these town halls and gatherings.
00:17:25
Speaker
What are your thoughts, Commissioner Malika? um For me, really, it's we need all different perspectives to understand the various impacts that are impacting our community. We have young families. We have older, retired individuals. We have business owners, entrepreneurs.
00:17:43
Speaker
um And so we have all different types of people who live and work here in Adams County. And having those diverse perspectives helps us better understand what's going on. and the work that we could do to make Adams County better.
00:17:59
Speaker
Thank you both for all of your insight, for all of your reflection on our last town hall and for helping us get excited about the next one. And I am so excited to have had this conversation with you. Thank you for your commitment to bringing Adams County's residents together.
00:18:13
Speaker
we hope that we'll be able to see y'all at our next town hall on Monday, September 29th. For Commissioners Lynn Baca and Julie Duran-Mullica, I'm Nikki Wellender, and this has been another episode of All in Adams.
00:18:25
Speaker
Thanks for joining. That's a wrap for this episode of All in Adams. Thank you for joining us as we explore the people, programs, and the policies that make Adams County a great place to live, work, and thrive.
00:18:38
Speaker
If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe and share with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Have a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know. We're all in for bringing you the stories that matter most.
00:18:49
Speaker
Until next time, take care of each other and stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, and X. We're all in, Adams, and we're all in for you.