I gave the several lightly-edited public remarks below at several points during the Broomfield City Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The first was during general public comment. The second after a presentation by the Housing Division of the City and County of Broomfield (CCOB). And the third after a presentation by the Broomfield Housing Alliance, our independent housing authority.
Good evening, everyone! I’m Marrton Dormish and I live in the Northmoor Estates in Ward 1. I’d like to start by thanking each member of council for your service. You have challenging jobs as elected officials and your willingness to dive into the matters of budgets and codes and community needs is appreciated. Much peace and wisdom to you in this season of transition, whether you’re continuing on with your terms, moving into other seats or whether you’re navigating another council election season.
Additionally, I’d like to thank staff for providing support to the council and for carrying so much and for doing so in the Broomfield Way. Your efforts do not go unnoticed.
As the coordinator of the Broomfield Sister Cities – Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes affiliate, I’d like to thank you all for taking an interest in our particular partnership, for confirming it in March through our joint recognition ceremony in Denver, for supporting our youth visit to Oklahoma this spring and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes youth and elders camp in Gold Hill this summer, and for recently and officially adopting the land acknowledgement that was spoken this evening. They’re all important steps in creating common memory with our partners and remembering a chapter of our wider history as a community in which Arapaho and other Native people living in this area were forcibly displaced during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush era, so that U.S. settlers could move in.
As an affiliate we’re looking forward to Broomfield Days, when we’ll help staff a Sister Cities informational booth and welcome visiting presenters from Oklahoma, and when we’ll join our fellow Broomfield Sister Cities affiliates Lalitpur, Nepal, and Ueda, Japan, in presenting about our groups on the demonstration stage from 3:30-5 p.m. So we hope to see you there!
Lastly, our Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes affiliate has been following a recent Denver effort to devote $20 million toward the design and construction of an American Indian Cultural Embassy near DIA, as a first-of-its-kind attempt to provide both recognition and space for both visiting dignitaries from Indigenous nations with official ties to the area and members of the local Native community in the metro area. Those funds have officially been included in a bond measure that goes before Denver voters this fall. Even if that effort is successful, additional funds will likely be needed to complete the embassy, and other area communities may have an opportunity to contribute. I’m not sure what that will look like, but just a heads up on that front. Thank you and good evening!
Good evening, again, everyone! Marrton Dormish, Birch neighborhood.
As the coordinator of the Broomfield Housing Stability Task Force, I’m supportive of the Housing Division’s wholestream approach —upstream, midstream and downstream — their community partnerships, and their work to eliminate regulatory bottlenecks to build income-aligned housing units…and to adjust implementation of our IHO [Inclusionary Housing Ordinance] to make it more effective.
I agree with Sharon [Tessier, housing program manager for the City and County of Broomfield] that many thousands of people in our community are struggling…So things like a Tenant-Based Rental Assistance 2.0 program are definitely called for, especially as it is one of the longest running housing programs in Broomfield. Please get creative with general funds to support the Housing Division’s several programs and/or match funds from CDBG and HOME allocations and other grants so the Housing Division’s property tax relief, legal assistance to mobile home residents and other programs can continue beyond the next couple years. Thank you!
Hi again, Marrton Dormish.
As intended when it was created by this body, the [Broomfield] Housing Alliance [BHA] brings game-changing and nationally recognized energy and ability to enhance local housing affordability and stability. They leverage funding in a very efficient way and make every allocation go a long way, as evidenced, as we’ve heard tonight by the recent groundbreaking of the Grove at Cottonwood development in my neighborhood. As you consider your IGA [Inter Governmental Agreement] with BHA tonight, please consider supporting them at the maximum allowable level of $500,000 [per year].
Housing has been a central topic of tonight’s meeting and a number of challenges around housing here in Broomfield. [I ad-libbed here, encouraging the council to review and adopt the collaborative housing strategy created last winter by the Broomfield Housing Solutions Forum.]
And I will add by way of reminder that the Housing Stability Task Force proposed two small tax-related ballot measures for this fall’s election that were not eventually referred because of a 20-point polling gap in likely voter support. As many of you know. So we’re undertaking a longer-term Plan B awareness and engagement campaign to ensure Broomfield residents know about the many urgent housing-related needs that exist in our community, the ways BHA and the Housing Division and many other organizations are working to meet them and to explore ways as a community to creatively generate new funding.
I acknowledge the tradeoffs at play here at every level from local government to non profits to everyday households. In the meantime, I’m heartened by another recent local funding effort. Two falls ago, I believe, when the city received unfavorable polling for an increase in local taxes to fund a new police and courts facility, the perceived need didn’t magically disappear. Other alternatives were considered and the city and council pivoted and this spring approved more than $70 million for that purpose.
Our current $15 million per year gap in funding to meet urgent housing-related needs also won’t magically disappear just because our proposed measures didn’t make it to the ballot. Since housing and shelter are basic human needs along with community safety, my hope is that, in the midst of its budget deliberations, and along with other stakeholders, the city will consider ways to make similarly robust investments in those areas.
Note: I ran out of time during my third and final comments, and didn’t have a chance to share the thoughts below, but they’re important so I’m including them below.
Budgets are moral and ethical documents as well as economic ones, and even in hard times or when hard times are coming, we need to keep that in our minds and hearts.
I’d like to close my appeal this evening, as a minister and a person of faith, with a benediction for us all to consider:
Along our way, as we deliberate on these important matters, may we all have the wisdom and courage to imagine Broomfield as a land called “Welcome Home.”
