5PM City Council Study Session @ City Hall

Meeting Agenda
Watch the meeting streaming live starting at 5PM
Attend the meeting @ City Hall Council Chambers - 911 10th Street - (map)
Send comments on any of the following topics to PublicComment@cityofgolden.net BEFORE 3PM
In-person comment is not accepted during study sessions, but you can speak when the business meeting starts at 6:30PM.

Tonight's Study Session Topics:

5-5:30PM Community Marketing Committee
The Community Marketing Committee was established in 2000. Prior to that time, merchants received a 2.5% credit on their sales tax submissions. The merchants agreed to contribute that 2.5% to a marketing fund. This constitutes a significant budget--over $600,000 this year.

The City's full-time marketing manager, who was responsible for running the Visit Golden program, left a year ago. The job has been vacant since that time. The merchants have not been happy with the City's management of the marketing program, which they have found expensive, cumbersome, and lacking in local knowledge and involvement. They proposed spinning off the program to be a separate non-profit entity. They wanted to hire their own marketing manager--someone who lived in (or near) Golden and spent time talking to the business owners.

City Council discussed the merchants' proposal at their January 14th study session and rejected it. Instead, they plan to dissolve the current board and appoint a new one. City staff will post the marketing manager job soon. The job description is included in the meeting memo. Council will review staff's proposed board structure and the job description tonight.

5:30-6PM City Council Rules of Procedure
Council will review and discuss a number of changes to their rules of procedure. Many of the proposed changes pertain to Councilors' use of social media.

One interesting inclusion relates to public comment. Many members of the public have noticed that Council members no longer reply to public comment (other than a polite thank you). This segment of the new rules of procedure may explain this change:

Acknowledge that new topics raised during a meeting by a member of the public, the council or board may not have the benefit of all of the necessary background information, may not be presented from a balanced perspective, and decisions in such situations are more often emotionally driven. Councilors may wish to consider using the Councilor New Business Proposal to address new topics raised during a Meeting.

Dinner Break
Council will break for dinner at the conclusion of the study session. The business meeting will begin at 6:30PM.