Finance & Governance Committee

Minutes Finance & Governance Committee Committee Members: Kniech, Chair; Flynn, Vice-Chair; Black; Espinoza; López; Ortega Committee Staff: Shelley Smith Tuesday, May 23, 2017, 1:30 PM City & County Building, Room 391 Attendance Present: 8- Kniech, Flynn, Black, Espinoza, López, Ortega, Kashmann, Susman Presentations 17-0606 Introduction: Council Appointment to the Nominations Committee for the Board of Ethics. Michael Lopez, the Council appointee to the Board of Ethics Nominations Commission, discussed his background, noting that he ia a native of the City. An engineer from MIT, he explained he was looking for a limited assignment due to his traveling job but wanted to serve his City. Councilman Flynn discussed the goal of inserting citizens into the ethics procedures as a buffer against the perception of politics or impropriety. Councilwoman Kniech invited Mr. Lopez to use the Committee as a resource if there are questions about this new model. 17-0607 Update from the Federal Lobbying Team. Emily Hauber, Mayor's Office, introduced the two members of the lobbying team from Hogan Lovells: Kate McAuliffe & Mike Bell, Hogan Lovells. Ms. McAuliffe, who specializes in budget matters, and Mike Bell, who worked for Senator Hatch on justice and other issues, discussed their backgrounds and the history of the firm. They discussed the current environment in DC and how the White House is being run like a family business. They discussed major issues including tax reform. This issue will turn on whether consensus can be reached and how to pay for it, or whether to use dynamic scoring instead which considers City and County of Denver Page 1 Printed on 5/23/2017  Minutes Finance & Governance Committee Tuesday, May 23, 2017 the future economic impacts of reforms. The team noted its awareness of the City's priority to maintain tax exemption for municipal bonds. The team also discussed the infrastructure package, a favorite of the president. It will include bridges, airports, smart technology incentives, other infrastructure as well as easing regulatory barriers. The package is expected to be $200 billion in federal support of some sort to leverage a trillion. Councilwoman Kniech questioned what parts of regulatory reform the City is taking a position on since wage and environmental protections are important values for our community. She also cautioned about funding infrastructure with devastating cuts in programs that are important to Denver residents and using processes that sacrifice the public good, such as public ownership of the asset. Other issues discussed by the team included health care, marijuana policy, including the recent new memorandum from Attorney General Sessions. David Broadwell, City Attorney’s Office, described the memo as significantly narrowing the breadth of the sanctuary city policy to jurisdictions which proactively violate a 20-year old federal law requiring certain cooperation with federal authorities on immigration. The City conforms with this law. In addition, the penalties will be narrowed to withholding certain law enforcement or homeland security monies. The Committee also discussed the President’s recent suggestion via his budget proposal to substantially expand the requirements of the 1373 to require, for example 48-hour detainers. If legislated, there most certainly will be legal constitutional challenges. Consent Items Below are items that were approved on the Committee's consent agenda today. 17-0580 Adds $300,000 to the master purchase order with CPS Distributors for a new maximum spend amount of $775,000 for irrigation equipment and supplies for use in parks citywide (5821M0116). City and County of Denver Page 2 Printed on 5/23/2017  Minutes Finance & Governance Committee Tuesday, May 23, 2017 This Resolution 17-0580 was approved by consent. 17-0583 Amends a contract with Roland Process Service & Investigations, LLC by updating and clarifying privacy and data security safeguards and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements for legal services including writs, warrants, subpoenas, and other legal matters citywide (201525605-02). This Resolution 17-0583 was approved by consent. 17-0585 Approves a $514,983.28 purchase of Cisco hardware, software, and configuration services from Lewan & Associates for a backup solution for all files and applications running in the City’s data centers citywide (EAPPS-0000006660). This Resolution 17-0585 was approved by consent. 17-0586 Approves the Mayoral reappointments of Josh Widoff and Terri Jackson to the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) Board of Directors for terms effective immediately and expiring 04-03-22. This Resolution 17-0586 was approved by consent. 17-0598 Rescinds and re-appropriates $124,750 in the capital improvement fund from the Washington Park restrooms project to complete the construction of the Washington Park playground in Council District 6. This Bill 17-0598 was approved by consent. City and County of Denver Page 3 Printed on 5/23/2017