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City of Longmont Staff presented Longmont City Council with a list of state legislative bills. Along with compiling the list, staff made recommendations for council based on the city's plans for Longmont. All recommendations were accepted by council.
February 4, 2020 City Council Meeting
HB20-1162, concerning a prohibition against a retail food establishment's distribution of an expanded polystyrene product for use as a container for ready-to-eat food. The bill prohibits a retail food establishment from distributing an expanded polystyrene product for use as a container for ready-to-eat food in this state. While this bill supports the efforts of the sustainability plan of decreasing household trash going to the landfill, it may be a big financial hit for small businesses and we hope that there will be measures to assist small business with this burden. Nonetheless, staff recommends that City Council supports HB20-1162.
HB20-1163, concerning the management of single-use products. The bill prohibits stores and retail food establishments, on and after July 1, 2021, from providing single-use plastic carryout bags, single-use plastic stirrers, single-use plastic straws, and expanded polystyrene food service products (collectively "single-use products") to customers at the point of sale. Again, this bill helps support the City’s sustainability goals but it may be a big financial hit for small businesses and we would encourage the state to provide support for those businesses as they transition away from single use plastics. Staff recommends that City Council supports HB20-1163.
SB20-017, concerning a requirement that the high-performance transportation enterprise include information about its public-private partnerships in its annual report to the legislative committees of the house of representatives and the senate that have jurisdiction over transportation. Current law authorizes the high-performance transportation enterprise (HPTE) to enter into public-private partnerships, which are contractual agreements between HPTE and one or more private or public entities, to deliver or contribute to the delivery of surface transportation projects and requires HPTE to provide an annual report on its activities to the legislative committees that have jurisdiction over transportation (currently the house of representatives transportation and local government committee and the senate transportation and energy committee). Beginning with the annual report due in 2021, the bill requires HPTE to include in the annual report, for each of its executed or proposed public-private partnerships. This bill is a positive step in providing additional transparency about these public-private partnerships. Staff recommends that City Council supports SB20-17.
SB20-151, concerning the administration of the regional transportation district. This bill requires many new requirements of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) around reporting, audits, ADA compliance and others. Staff is still analyzing the impacts of this bill and will bring a recommendation when complete.
SJR20-003, concerning approval of water project revolving fund eligibility lists administered by the Colorado water resources and power development authority. This is the standard Water Resources and Power Development Authority projects list. This program assists many water and wastewater providers across the state to develop and upgrade their water and wastewater systems and Longmont has a number of projects already on this list eligible for consideration of funding. Staff recommends that City Council supports SJR20-003.
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