Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 1:30 p.m. (Denver time), City & County Building, Council Committee Room, Room 391 1437 Bannock Street
Committee: Business, Arts, Workforce, Climate & Aviation Services Committee
The Business, Arts, Workforce, Climate & Aviation Services Committee met on April 2, 2025, with Vice Chair Kevin Flynn presiding in the absence of the chair. The committee received a briefing from Denver Public Library leadership on 2024 accomplishments—including over 2.5 million visitors, expanded services funded by the voter-approved Library Strong measure, executive leadership transitions, the new 2030 strategic plan, and progress on bond-funded renovation projects. Council members asked about demographic usage data, potential research libraries for the Latino and Indigenous communities, branch renaming, expanded evening hours, staffing levels and retention, and genealogy resources. The committee also had approximately six consent items pending to move forward after the briefing.
0:05 170 billion U.S. Dollars.
0:07 Welcome to the business
0:08 arts workforce, climate and
0:08 Aviation Services Committee of
0:11 Denver City Council. This
0:15 session of the business arts
0:15 workforce, Climate and
0:16 Aviation Committee
0:18 begins now.
0:28 There we go
0:29 welcome everyone. To the
0:33 Denver City councils. Business
0:33 arts workforce, Climate in
0:34 Aviation Services Committee.
0:36 It's real medal haul for
0:39 Wednesday. APRIL, the second.
0:41 My name is Kevin Flynn. I'm a
0:41 vice chair. The committee. I'm
0:43 filling in for the chair of
0:47 Council woman. Today. That's
0:49 to around of introductions of
0:50 council members. And I'll
0:56 start member who is online
0:56 Thanks, sir. One of your 2
0:58 city council members at large.
1:02 And then I'll go to my
1:02 left. Thank you, MR. Chair
1:05 Stacy Gilmore District 11.
1:08 Good afternoon. But just lucky
1:10 Diana Romero, Campbell,
1:10 district. 7. Good afternoon.
1:13 Southeast Denver district 4,
1:14 thank you. And forgot to
1:15 mention vice chair of the
1:15 committee, but forgot to
1:19 mention I represent.
1:21 Council district far
1:23 southwest number. We have a
1:24 one briefing on agenda today.
1:28 We have to consent more than 2
1:33 with about or 6 consent items
1:35 on the I subjects for the
1:36 meeting. So what we have a
1:37 briefing from Denver Public
1:40 Library on 2024.
1:43 Accomplishments in 2025
1:44 forecast. And I understand
1:47 that the labor and Jessica is
1:49 not here. There's as on the
1:51 weather, I guess, but so.
1:52 Who's going to lead this Are
1:56 chilled, introduce your
1:57 Countries Ari on the to
1:57 public services officer and
1:58 they'll be kicking us off.
2:03 Thank you. And then. Well, if
2:05 you call for chief equity
2:06 strategy, officer.
2:07 You know, most and around
2:09 the chief operations officer.
2:10 And I'm Eric Martinez,
2:11 director, communications and
2:13 community engagement. Just go
2:17 right Thank Thank you for
2:17 giving us the opportunity to
2:20 share some important updates.
2:22 The city council and our
2:24 Denver community. As I stated
2:25 My name is Theresa Look great
2:27 on the public services officer
2:28 and we have several our
2:31 leaders here today that will
2:32 help inform the conversation
2:33 and going to do something
2:38 that. So tendency to agenda
2:39 topics will be a look back at
2:40 some fun facts from 2024. That
2:43 demonstrates fundraise impact
2:45 and introduction of details.
2:46 Executive leadership update
2:52 about. Shell's transition over
2:54 the 2 of them are 2030,
2:56 strategic plan. And update on
2:58 our strong lead. Very strong
2:59 updates from the voters
3:02 approved measure that provides
3:02 tpl with the additional
3:03 funding that is necessary for
3:05 operations and services to
3:07 Denver and then a progress
3:09 report update on the ongoing
3:09 bond projects. And then we'll
3:12 have time for coming.
3:19 So we continue to bounce back
3:20 from the pandemic and we'd
3:22 like to kick it off with some
3:23 numbers that we would like to
3:25 tell our story with We have
3:26 over had over 2.5 million
3:29 visitors last year. 4.6
3:33 million to our website. Nearly
3:36 2 4.2 million physical items
3:37 circulated with over 5.5
3:40 million uses electronic
3:41 materials. And that does not
3:43 include our New York Times.
3:47 Our crafts tease, crafts ease.
3:49 It's specifically includes are
3:50 the books are books videos and
3:55 are serious? We had over 212
3:57 people attend our programs. We
4:03 had over 304. 1000 people
4:05 using computers, computer
4:08 sessions and we've had 290,000
4:08 Wi-Fi sessions and 110 people
4:09 signed up for new library
4:14 carts. He also had Chromebook
4:19 usage Has gone up for older
4:23 helping them with tablets. Get
4:25 them on their own pace. We
4:26 have some other fun facts. We
4:27 have Chromebooks usage that
4:32 has gone up for older adult
4:33 community we've supported with
4:36 to our staff, diverse set of
4:38 many different fun facts that
4:38 needs for our customers to
4:42 we're going to share. We have
4:44 story time. 7,900 storytime
4:45 attendees babies and toddlers
4:48 take advantage of the service.
4:49 27,000. Check out to
4:52 renewables of Chromebooks.
4:53 Someone tops our Bookmobile is
4:55 made over 1800 stops across
4:57 Denver in the areas that were
4:58 most needed. This is about 35
5:00 stops a week and some are
5:03 times or even busier. And
5:05 almost 11,000 people used our
5:06 communities resource tm
5:10 across timber. Behind these
5:10 numbers. There are real
5:12 stories that demonstrate our
5:14 impact our community benefits
5:15 from foe everyday library work
5:18 that we do from a busy mom
5:18 calling story time during
5:21 their morning commute to
5:22 bringing a crying kid in the
5:25 back seat. Some comfort. 2
5:26 students who need help with a
5:28 list of resources for school
5:30 project to a person looking
5:31 for a job and checking out a
5:34 Chromebook, a laptop. Our
5:36 services, our staff support, a
5:37 diverse set of needs for our
5:38 customers and our services
5:40 play a role in supporting are
5:43 changing and community. Erica
5:49 now introduce the Yes. So we
5:50 know that we have a lot going
5:53 on at the library and over the
5:53 last cup.
5:54 the years, we've obviously
5:57 seen a change in how people
5:58 are utilizing our
6:00 organization, our services,
6:02 our programs. And that also
6:04 has meant that we've had to
6:05 look internally to take a look
6:07 and make sure that organized
6:09 accordingly to be able to
6:12 better serve the organization.
6:13 So we recognize that our
6:14 organizational structure was
6:17 really not supporting the work
6:18 that we were doing. And so we
6:19 have made a few changes that
6:19 we want to share with you
6:25 today. As you know, Michelle
6:26 just scans our executive
6:28 director what we've done here
6:31 is we have 3 divisions that
6:32 guided the work of the
6:36 organization. We have we
6:38 recent recently welcomed well
6:39 shopping or as a chief
6:42 operating officer last year.
6:43 You've met Valencia fuel. We
6:46 have that Valencia Colbert,
6:47 who is our chief equity and
6:48 strategy officer. And then
6:49 Teresa's achieve public
6:51 services officer. So each of
6:52 them and bring a wealth of
6:55 knowledge to these areas and
6:57 and really contribute to the
7:00 growth evolution of our
7:03 organization. So with those 3
7:04 divisions, we feel like very
7:05 well equipped to do the work
7:06 that organization wants us to
7:13 to So nc a under balenciaga's
7:14 leadership. We've got the
7:18 inclusion, diversity, equity
7:19 and Accessibility Subdivision,
7:20 Human Resources subdivision,
7:22 the organizational strategy
7:24 and development or a
7:24 subdivision and our
7:25 communications and community
7:29 Engagement Subdivision. So the
7:37 lens, yeah comes to from. Lets
7:38 it comes to us with a wealth
7:43 of experience and she's a
7:44 certified diversity executive
7:46 with over 15 years of
7:48 experience and her experience
7:50 ranges from creating
7:53 implementing and governing
7:55 community companywide
7:55 strategies, designing
7:56 inclusive, learning
7:56 opportunities and coaching to
8:00 oversee employee life cycle
8:01 and identifying opportunities
8:03 to create more equitable and
8:04 inclusive policies,
8:05 programming and practices on
8:06 global scale. So those are the
8:11 says she leading. We've well
8:12 also just recently, like I
8:17 joined our team and he is an
8:19 accomplished business
8:19 operations and information
8:20 technology leader with more
8:23 than 30 years of experience, a
8:24 progressive experience and
8:26 about the managing and leading
8:28 business operations,
8:29 integrated technology, vendor
8:31 management and strategy. And
8:35 he recently worked at the gum
8:36 he worked under Governor
8:38 Hickenlooper and states. It
8:39 division. That weird that you
8:41 all are here and you talk
8:45 about and for everybody.
8:46 says fall. Yeah, that's
8:49 right. Palaces as well.
8:52 So subdivisions includes
8:53 facilities, finance.
8:56 Technology, and safety and
8:57 security. And then last but
9:00 not least. We've got your isa
9:02 Theresa is the leader of all
9:04 of our neighborhood services
9:05 location. So those are all the
9:06 locations that you are used to
9:08 27 of them.
9:08 going into your neighborhoods.
9:10 Also includes Central
9:13 Library, our collection
9:14 services, special collections
9:15 and archives and then service
9:16 design and coordination, which
9:18 is what we call all of the
9:21 programming and mobile
9:23 services services that we
9:25 offer throughout Denver and 2
9:26 recent joined us a year ago as
9:28 well. Some like Valencia. And
9:28 you've also so that we have
9:30 also have a chance to meet
9:32 her. She served previously as
9:34 the assistant vice chancellor
9:36 for information technology. To
9:38 you. And she has served as a
9:39 director of library operations
9:41 and digital media services as
9:42 well as in various leadership
9:44 roles over 14 years with and
9:46 the University Library in
9:48 Penrose Library. And she
9:49 brings valuable experience to
9:53 dpo library operations. So I
9:53 also want to acknowledge that
9:56 we've got our executive
9:57 director, our new executive
9:59 director of our Friends
10:02 Foundation. It's sitting right
10:04 over there. So Katie Anderson
10:06 and in DECEMBER, Jeff Riley,
10:07 who I'm sure you'll all
10:11 remember decided to retire and
10:12 the Friends Foundation didn't
10:13 have to look very far to find
10:14 its next leader. And so Katie
10:15 has been at the foundation for
10:20 a few years and has jumped and
10:21 kept moving the work forward.
10:24 So wanted to make sure that I
10:25 get her shot out. She's part
10:26 of the team to So at the end
10:30 of last year, Michelle just
10:33 ski, our city librarian and
10:34 executive director. I shared
10:34 that her and she had the
10:36 intention to leave dp l a 8
10:38 year old to get her next
10:41 chapter and what she's calling
10:42 her jubilee. So with these 3
10:44 chiefs at the helm, we are
10:45 confident that our operations
10:48 will continue to suffer part
10:49 our work across Denver and
10:52 well past her tenure. Just
10:56 update on that search. We have
10:59 hired national search. I'm a
11:00 firm to help us with this
11:05 process. I we the library
11:06 commission is responsible for
11:10 this search. And they have
11:10 been working on screening
11:12 candidates. We they haven't
11:15 met several candidates as well
11:16 and they'll continue the
11:19 recruitment process until they
11:20 find you're candidate with the
11:23 proper qualifications. So the
11:24 final candidates will have a
11:26 chance to meet staff and
11:26 partners as well. And this
11:28 past week that happened when
11:32 one set of candidates.
11:33 And then
11:34 Cars were sent to see
11:37 Michelle, go. But she is
11:38 leaving the organization and a
11:41 great place to succeed. And
11:43 speaking of what she's leaving
11:45 behind is a new strategic plan
11:47 on the road that will guide
11:49 our work for the next 5, 6,
11:51 years. And I'm going to go
11:51 ahead and pass it over to
11:53 Valencia so that she can share
11:54 more about that strategic plan
11:59 and what's in store for thank
12:00 you, Erica. So last year we
12:01 spent a good chunk of our
12:04 you're getting ready to one
12:06 sunset are.
12:07 Laster teacher plan that
12:09 ended that the end of 2024.
12:10 Really launch our next
12:13 strategic plan, which will
12:17 take us 2, 2030. So Denver
12:19 here is our news her that
12:21 everybody should nice, pretty
12:24 copy in front of you. And I'm
12:26 just really excited to share
12:28 it with you to really talk
12:31 about the different components
12:31 and how we got where we got
12:34 being able to set us up for
12:37 the everchanging number
12:38 community. So I want to share
12:39 with the plan and put
12:40 specifically on how we were
12:46 able to design this plan few
12:47 key inputs rate that we want
12:48 to talk about are really wrote
12:50 the results based
12:51 accountability. So you'll see
12:53 that it's something that we've
12:55 kept ongoing from our last
12:58 plan that really guide our
12:59 creation of success indicators
13:00 and helps promote
13:03 accountability as you'll see
13:03 those under the age of that
13:11 the 1.1 2.0, 2, 1.3 with us,
13:12 including our new strategic
13:13 plan. So that was really
13:16 incredible. We had over 1400
13:18 customers respond to our
13:21 community survey. We hosted 15
13:22 strategic partner, focus
13:23 groups to really insight. We
13:27 had a Jersey Pete commissions
13:27 at at our meeting and then we
13:30 even went a bit further this
13:32 time. And we are reaching out
13:35 to are missing voices as we're
13:36 calling them. So our unhoused
13:37 populations are immigrant
13:41 populations spectrum. We
13:42 incorporated our new service
13:44 philosophy that we designed
13:46 last to really take us back to
13:47 our core services and what we
13:50 are uniquely designed to do.
13:52 And then we, of course, will
13:53 continue to her mission and
13:56 our vision throughout all what
13:59 we Lastly, we had an
13:59 environmental scandal that was
14:02 incredibly. I would say
14:05 insightful and really helped
14:07 to understand what our
14:08 demographics were and really
14:10 around the trends try what our
14:12 service it's going to be. And
14:13 then what our community needs.
14:14 So we really think that this
14:17 will help us really guide us
14:20 through the 2030. So the
14:21 components of the plan, we
14:25 have 4 main components. So we
14:25 were really intentional about
14:27 how we were going to ensure
14:29 that the plan was going to be
14:31 measured, focused and really
14:31 relates to all staff at all
14:33 levels so they can their work
14:37 within the plant as well. So
14:39 the 3 strategic things will
14:40 start with those things.
14:42 Correspond directly with our
14:44 core services. And I'll talk a
14:45 little bit more about each of
14:48 the here in just a bat. We
14:50 have objectives that each of
14:51 those things levels will focus
14:51 on those throughout the
14:55 lifecycle plan. And then where
14:56 we start to see a little bit
14:58 of change. Every 2 years is
14:58 how we've developed our
15:03 two-year priorities. That's
15:03 specifically designed so that
15:06 we can really hone on specific
15:08 projects. One not get lost.
15:10 Somethings trying to wait 6
15:12 what the community needs and
15:12 years. Really thinking about
15:16 those 24 months. So that