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OCN > 2409 > Triview Metropolitan District, Aug. 22 – 2023 budget amended; 2023 audit presented; district opposes initiatives 50 and 108

Triview Metropolitan District, Aug. 22 – 2023 budget amended; 2023 audit presented; district opposes initiatives 50 and 108

By Natalie Barszcz

At the Triview Metropolitan District (TMD) meeting on Aug. 22, the board held public hearings to amend the 2023 budget and accepted the 2023 audit draft presented by Haynie and Co. for the district’s audited financial statements. The board approved multiple resolutions relating to the 2023 budget amendment and the audit, and the 2024 employee handbook.

The board adopted a resolution in opposition to statewide proposals for initiatives 50 and 108 and approved an agreement between the district and the Town of Monument (TOM) to receive Highway User Tax Funds (HUTF). The board held an executive session to discuss water and land acquisitions, and potential development incentives and intergovernmental agreements.

Treasurer/Secretary James Barnhart was excused.

2023 budget amendment

District Manager James McGrady said the 2023 budget requires amendments because projections of how much money will be spent is a bit of a guess, and various things can happen. The 2023 budget projected in October 2022 allocated about $7.999 million for the General Fund/Capital Projects Fund, but in reality, it needed to be about $8.1 million to cover expenditures, so about a $100,000 difference.

About $25.254 million was allocated for the Water and Wastewater Enterprise Fund/Capital Projects Fund but the district actually spent about $29.146 million, with most of the additional funds used to purchase materials in advance for the Northern Delivery System. He requested the board approve the 2023 budget amendment for the General Fund/Capital Projects Fund and for the Water and Wastewater Enterprise Fund/Capital Projects Fund to balance the books before the 2023 audit is presented for approval.

The board approved Resolution 2024-08, amending the 2023 budget.

2023 audit presentation

Audit Manager Greg Ingalls of Haynie and Co. presented the 2023 audit and said his audit partner Christine McLeod had some small items to complete before the audit can be finalized. The opinion will be unmodified based upon the testing procedures and would be issued upon acceptance of the draft audit.

District Accountant Kathy Fromm, of Fromm and Co., said the audit is subject to final review for some open items.

The board accepted the draft audit subject to final audit review with direction to staff to file the audit with the state.

District opposes statewide ballot initiatives

District counsel George Rowley of White Bear Ankele Tanaka and Waldron law firm said two statewide proposed initiatives 50 and 108 have been approved by Secretary of State Jena Griswold and will likely be on the ballot in November. A special legislative session has been called to try to appease the people who have sponsored the initiatives and get the sponsors to remove the initiatives. Rowley said:

  • Initiative 50 would amend the Colorado Constitution to limit property tax growth to 4% per year and would require a statewide vote for any increase above that percentage, but in many years natural inflation has been more than 4%.
  • Both initiatives turn local government budgeting decisions for “special districts” such as water/wastewater and fire districts, over to a statewide voter decision.
  • It is unknown how Initiative 50 will be applied and although Initiative 108 is a little less scary, the cuts would be significant and require the district to cut back.
  • Initiative 108 reduces the residential property tax rate from 6.7% to 5.7% and the commercial property tax rate from 27% to 24%.

The district is opposed to these proposals and the statewide solution that would be devasting to most districts, Rowley said. If Initiative 50 passes, reducing tax growth to no more than 4% per year, it would halt government financing from general obligation bonds, and districts would not be able to predict budgets and pledge revenues. It would paralyze a lot of municipal financing within the state, because the 4% cap on tax growth applies to both residential and commercial, and it does not differentiate between new growth increasing the tax base or inflation, said Rowley.

President Mark Melville said with all the commercial growth coming into the district, the tax cap would cripple the district, and TMD would not see the revenue for years. If this initiative passes, anyone needing to build a pipeline will be doomed to begin a project without bonds. The district has roads to maintain and the expense of snow removal, but luckily TMD is trailing off on capital improvements, he said.

Vice President Anthony Sexton said the initiatives have been developed for old neighborhoods in Denver that have no new growth.

McGrady said that for example, the addition of a $50 million warehouse in the district would leave the district with no choice but to roll back the mill levy on the whole district to remain within the 4% cap. The measures will cripple special district fire departments that typically have a lot of debt, he said.

Water Attorney Chris Cummins said the initiatives are not written for local governments but as a populist measure to reduce taxes. If these measures had already been in place, the district would not have been able to build the NDS. However, the district had good financial planning, with its revenue bonds, and built in the greatest cycle of growth, particularly in the housing market. The property tax revenues went up and up with growth, and the board responded by lowering the mills back down for the residents, avoiding collecting all of the property tax revenue available. The district was able to build new infrastructure and purchase water rights with the addition of 150-200 homes per year. A 4% cap on tax revenue would restrict growth and services in the future, he said.

The board approved Resolution 2024-10, opposing the ballot initiatives.

2024 employee handbook

Michelle Fergusson of Ireland Stapleton Pryor Pascoe PC law firm said the key goal was to update the 2024 Policy and Procedures Employee handbook with the prolific number of changes made by federal and state employment laws over the past few years. The handbook has significant updates regarding the drug and alcohol policy, specifically for licenses and marijuana, vehicle requirements for personal and district-owned vehicles, discipline steps and termination, updated language for the FAMLI, a state benefit offering Colorado workers access to paid sick leave, with some incentive changes to the district’s own sick leave and vacation policies, said Fergusson.

McGrady said the old policy manual seemed geared around employees remaining with the district for only five years, but most employees have remained far beyond that tenure.

The board approved resolution 2024-09 adopting the handbook effective Sept. 1.

Highway Users Tax Fund agreement

McGrady said the Highway Users Tax Fund (HUTF) is a gasoline tax (.43 cents per gallon) collected for the entire state into a kitty, then held and distributed to entities responsible for the maintenance of public roads, in most cases for the state, counties, and municipalities. The cut is dependent on how many lane miles each entity maintains, but as more electric vehicles are purchased, less tax would be collected in the future, but Colorado is growing and the HUTF is growing. The district currently has about 135 lane miles to maintain, and the TOM has about 50 miles to maintain, for a total of about 185 miles of lane roads. The TOM is collecting only about 60 miles of revenue per year, and some of those roads are within TMD. The TOM is receiving about $300,000 annually for 60 miles but should be receiving about $900,000 annually from the HUTF if the TMD roads were included.

Rowley found a similar intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between a county in southwest Colorado and a metro district that had to maintain a lot of lane miles. A proposed IGA between TMD and TOM to allow a share back to the district for future road maintenance would be “free money” to really help the district without hurting the TOM. The district will calculate the total lane miles for both entities and include an additional 5% reimbursement to the town. The district maintains its own roads, represents about 60% of the Monument population, and has not previously been included in the town’s calculations for the HUTF, said McGrady.

The board approved McGrady and Rowley presenting the HUTF IGA agreement to the TOM for review and consideration, with a correction to the calculating line mile formula.

Higby Road update

McGrady said the 12-inch main pipeline under Higby Road had been completed. Due to an application error during the curing process, the asphalt overlay patch cured with a wavy appearance. The patch will be re-milled and sealed by the contractor at no additional cost to the district.

Sheffield said the design plans for the Higby Road improvements are complete and ready to be submitted to the TOM.

Director Jason Gross said he thought the final design for the Higby Road project had already been approved by the TOM.

McGrady said the district submitted the design to the TOM, the TOM made comments on it, then the district addressed the comments and re-submitted the design. The TOM approved the plat for the Zeal for Living apartments access road for the right-of-way and the Town Council were only concerned about the width of the right-of-way, but not the width of Higby Road design. The design is being submitted to the TOM staff, but the Town Council will not vote again during the process, he said.

Buena Vista land annexation update

McGrady said the annexation agreement for the Chicago Ranch (293.96 acres located in Chaffee County, across the road from the Buena Vista Rodeo Grounds) was approved for annexation into the town of Buena Vista and recorded on Aug. 22, and everything will be finalized by mid-September. The annexation was necessary for constructing recharge ponds for the district to control water rights associated with the Arkansas Valley Irrigation Canal Co.’s Ditch and change the water rights to municipal uses for the district’s purposes. The district hopes to construct the ponds as soon as possible, he said. See https://wp.ocn.me/v24n8tmd.

Northern Delivery System update

McGrady said the NDS ribbon-cutting ceremony was a success. See article on page < 14 >.

Assistant Manager Steve Sheffield introduced Gary Potter, the new Water Utilities superintendent, and said he had attended multiple NDS start-up coordination meetings with Kiewit staff, Colorado Springs Utilities staff, Timberline staff, electricians, and other stakeholders. The start-up date on Aug. 20 was a success, and the district pushed water from Colorado Springs Utilities through the district’s system, but the system was shut down until Aug. 28 due to some issues with the chlorine pressure reducing valve, some programming, and power issues. The district is making progress testing the system and the team did not expect to “flip the switch and walk away from it, it’s a process,” said Sheffield.

Water utilities update

Sheffield said the district had the highest record of well water pumped in July, producing about 54.679 million gallons (MG) (the district water pumped in July 2023 was 28.926 MG). The district billed 52.241 MG to customers in July. The percent loss for July 2024 would have been 4.45%, but the additional water was used for backwashing and to flush five miles of the NDS line in preparation for the NDS pump station start up. The actual billable water was 51.3 MG, and about a 1.8% water loss, said Sheffield.

Sexton asked if the district would have less water loss in the future when the district receives its water via the NDS that feeds directly into the tanks versus moving water from wells to the tanks.

McGrady said there should be less water loss in the system as the district will not backwash nearly as much as it did when reliant on its wells. The district’s water will enter the NDS pre-treated via Colorado Springs Utilities and 40 new meters throughout the district are bound to be more accurate. “Everything is as tight as possible,” he said.

Assistant manager’s report

Sheffield said the following:

  • The district staff is working toward the final design for a new administrative office space/shop to be built on a site west of I-25 and northwest of Baptist Road. Several significant changes to the building layout have been incorporated into the design since the July meeting. The site purchase has yet to be finalized and approved by the board.
  • Repairs were conducted on the Earth Cam camera at the South Reservoir. The camera had “seized” due to a communication wire that was cut due to rubbing on a sharp metal edge.
  • Work continues with NES and RESPEC teams to develop plans for a new 1.5-million-gallon water storage tank to be located adjacent to the existing storage tank in “B Plant” in Promontory Pointe. Plans will be submitted to the TOM soon.
  • The sporting field booking schedule for the Sanctuary Pointe Park is up and running on the district website. The interface between the website and the payment and scheduling aspect was more complicated than anticipated, but demand for field time is strong and launching the platform was a high priority.

Snow truck requested

Superintendent Matt Rayno requested the board consider approving the build of a new plow truck for the district snow removal services. The dump truck outfitted with a plow and a stainless-steel bed to prevent salt erosion could be built and delivered in early 2025 for $257,000 (the new truck is a 2022 model). The truck would be used for snow removal 90% of the time but would also be utilized for landscaping. The district has three trucks that are about 22-25 years old, and one truck would be sold upon delivery of the new truck. The existing trucks were all purchased used, including the truck purchased in 2023.

McGrady said the district will need to be careful with the 2025 budget, and the truck purchase might be the vast majority of the Parks and Open Space capital expenditures next year. The district roadways are in good condition, and the district could back down on an overlay project next year, and/or delay playground equipment for a year. The district is building its own office/shop space and will need to vacate the leased office space at the end of 2025, and has minimal road infrastructure to complete, but “we will need to watch the pennies,” he said.

The board instructed Rayno to proceed with the build-out of a new truck for inclusion in the 2025 budget.

Executive session

The board moved into an executive session at 8:20 p.m., pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes section 24-6-402(4)(a), for the purpose of acquisition of water/land, and 24-6-402(4)(b), for the purpose of determining the positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategies for negotiations, and instructing negotiators as it relates to potential development incentives and intergovernmental agreements.

Sheffield confirmed that after the meeting returned to the regular session, no action was taken and the meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m.

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Meetings are usually held on the third Thursday of the month at the district office located at 16055 Old Forest Point, Suite 302. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 19 at 5:30 p.m. For meeting agendas, minutes, and updates, visit https://triviewmetro.com.

Natalie Barszcz can be reached at nataliebarszcz@ocn.me.

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