Study Session
July 21, 2025
Transcript
Describer:
Work Session
Monday, July 21st, 2025, at 5:30 p.m.
7404 Yorkshire Drive, Castle Pines, CO 80108
I. Call Work Session to order
II. Roll call
III. Finance
A. Review: Monthly claims for payments made from June 12th, 2025, to July 16th, 2025.
B. Presentation: 2024 Audit. Introduction by Eric Harris (Elevated Clarity), Presentation by Russell White (Ruben Brown).
C. Review: Investment Policy.
D. Presentation: Overview of District State Compliance Calendar & 2026 budget process.
IV. Legal
A. Review: PCWRA Bond Repayment Agreement.
V. District Manager
A. Review & Discuss: Revised Employee Handbook.
B. Review & Discuss: Best Practices & Workflow for Board-Received Inquiries.
VI. Adjourn
Board President Jason Blankaert:
Good evening, and welcome to the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District work session. Today is Monday, July 21st at 5:30 p.m.. We will call the meeting to order and begin with roll call.
Board Member Director James Mulvey:
Jim. Sorry. Here. And no conflicts.
Board Member Director Tera Radloff:
Tera. Here.
Board Member Director Jana Krell:
Jana. Here.
Jason:
And I'm Jason and I'm here as well. No conflicts. So we will open up the finance. monthly claims review.
Describer:
Castle Pines North Metropolitan District
Disbursements Summary
For the Period June 12, 2025 - July 16, 2025
PRESENTED FOR REVIEW
CHECKS - 29229 through 29269 Amount
Voucher Checks - June 12, 2025 - July 16, 2025 Amount $865,808.61
One-Time Checks - June 12, 2025 - July 16, 2025 Amount $1,371.17
TOTAL CHECKS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW $867,179.78
ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
June 12, 2025 - July 16, 2025 Amount $153,992.79
TOTAL ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW $153,992.79
Total Payments Presented for Review $1,021,172.57
Financial Director Eric Harris:
Good evening. Board. on the second page of your packet, you have our disbursement summary for checks and electronic payments. These total $1,021,172.57. This will be incorporated into our budget of budget actual reporting at next week's board meeting. Just a couple items to highlight on this page. there is a check, 29645 to GSC construction for approximately $56,000, for the well vaults rehabilitation.
there is a check to Kennedy Jenks. check number 29249 for approximately $95,000. For, numerous costs associated with just engineering services, reimbursable engineering services, as well as several capital projects. another fairly large disbursement to Layne Christiansen of $213,000, check number 29251. And that's for the Arapahoe Wells repair work. And then, also, QP Services 29260, check number 29260 for $63,068.50.
And that is also for distribution repairs. So those are some of the big, at least dollar amounts. everything else is and, and our electronic payment section is as, as expected, payroll and some items there. So certainly can introduce any questions that you may have on the, checklist.
Tera:
So just and I know this is for middle of June to middle of July.
So it's not surprising to see an invoice there in May, but for CRS or is that the last of it?
Eric:
The district is still, contracted with CRS for utility billing services. So we still have Alice in here, doing part time work, doing that, I think she said three days a week. Is that right, Nathan?
Yep. So you will still see, a scope of services associated with them. Thank you. You're welcome.
Jason:
All right. Great. Any other questions regarding that? We'll go ahead and close out. item number A or item letter A, and, we'll move on to the presentation of the 2024 audit. Eric.
Eric:
Certainly. So I would like to go ahead and introduce, Russell White and Nicole Trotter. They're here with Ruben Brown. Russell is the audit partner in charge, with this report.
a fairly large team involved to get this done. as you may recall, field work commenced, second to last week or last week of May. So pretty phenomenal for their team and their staff, that are not here. and their, their audit manager in for, the team here to get, everything wrapped up and get an audit report draft to you by the end of June.
That's a pretty monumental effort. Sometimes these things stretch on for a couple of months. And as you may recall, for a couple of years in some instances. So, very glad to get this done. for the team on both sides from the district's point of view and, from the auditor's point of view. just a couple of items tied us up into July.
there's two things just to mention. the district had to file some prior year severance tax returns for, for oil and gas moneys. So we, Nathan had those, tax returns delivered to him today, and so we'll get those taken care of. And then, we also had some revenue, with an IGA tied with the city of, city of Castle Pines town center, Metro districts one and three.
So we had to get that revenue booked as well. So continue to follow up on that. but, again, just want to welcome Ruben Brown here. And they're here to present and answer any questions you may have regarding the audit.
Jason:
Great. Thank you. Russell.
Describer:
Page 27 of the Work Session Board Packet.
Independent Auditors Report
Board of Directors Castle Pines North Metropolitan DistrictCastle Pines, Colorado
Opinions
We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the governmental activities, the business-type activities and each major fund of Castle Pines North Metropolitan District (the District), as of and for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes to the financial statements, which
collectively comprise the Districts basic financial statements as listed in the table of contents.
In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial position of the governmental activities, the business-type activities and each major
fund of the District as of December 31, 2024, and the respective changes in financial position, and, where applicable, cash flows thereof for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Russell White, Ruben Brown:
All right. Good evening everyone. It's, good to see everybody again. Really appreciate being down here. And, it's July. It's hot, but which is okay. we've got, like, a 58 page, audit report here. It's just going to go over some highlights. Summary, recap. I think I've got about 13 bullet points here to go over real quickly.
overall clean opinion this year. No modifications to the opinion. Or as we, professionals in the CPA profession like to call it, an unmodified opinion letter from the auditor. So that's the best you can get. That's what you've had in the past. So, that's good news. item number two, is on the, is on the statement of, financial position, which is on, page five.
Describer:
Page 31 of the Work Session Board Packet.
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
See the notes to financial statements. Page 5
STATEMENT OF NET POSITION
December 31, 2024 (With Comparative Totals For December 31, 2023)
As explained by Russell.
Russell:
And I just want to go over a couple things there. cash and cash equivalents are pretty much the same. about $50 million overall. Unrestricted, net position increase, $216,000, which is good. And one of the things I look at in a district, how did our unrestricted net position do? What did it do? Did it go up or down?
And in this district, it's, it went up a little bit and that's, that's very good. That basically helps demonstrate that you have a strong, financial position and also a strong cash position, which you can see that, $49 million at the bottom, unrestricted in columns, 2024 2023, 49 through 21 versus 49, 105 and then up above cash took a little bit of a dip of about $451,000.
But that's that's actually okay. So that's page five. Those are two things on there that are noteworthy from the auditor's on page six.
Describer:
Page 32 of the Work Session Board Packet.
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
See the notes to financial statements. Page 6
STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES
For The Year Ended December 31, 2024
(With Comparative Totals For The Year Ended December 31, 2023)
As explained by Russell.
Russell:
This is the statement of activities. This is like the full accrual basis of accounting for a district. The item I would like for you to pay attention there is the the change in position. It's at the it's at the bottom.
If I can bring your attention to column, the 2024 column in the 2023 column. You can see that this year, $6.2 million. Last year was, was basically a loss, but we had a $10 million convenience there. So if you back that out, then basically it like a $3 million, what I call net change in, net position or net income of 3 to $6 million this year.
So net income went up approximately $3 million. That's on page six of the, auditor's report.
going on to page 14 of the auditor's report for the enterprise fund. That's the, water wastewater. Statement of cash flows.
Describer:
Page 40 of the Work Session Board Packet.
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
See the notes to financial statements. Page 14
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS - ENTERPRISE FUNDS
For The Year Ended December 31, 2024
(With Comparative Totals For The Year Ended December 31, 2023)
As explained by Russell.
Russell:
And that's actually, kind of my favorite statement to talk about as an auditor. You know, how is the district really doing? Is it cash flowing? Positive or is it cash flowing negatively? So when you look up at the upper section again, I'll bring your attention to that 2024 column and 2023 column there on the right hand side.
As you can see, net cash flow, net cash flows provided by operating activities. a positive $2.3 million compared to the previous year of a negative $653,000. So that's almost a $3 million improvement there. That's, that's very good. That's what you want to see. You want to see positive cash flow from your operations. So that kind of tells me that your rates are on the plus side.
So you're basically taking more money in than you're expending. from an operations standpoint, overall, when you come down net increase in cash was a positive $846,000 for the Enterprise Fund for the enterprise funds. And if you look at the water and wastewater, you can see how that 846717 was from water and then wastewater, $152,000. So overall positive.
846 for the year. And again, that's about a $3 million improvement from the prior year. Overall strong net position. another item to to note is the general fund staying around due to random taxes that are collected. another, random nugget here. Storm drainage is officially closed down in 2024, so you won't see that in 2025.
And then getting into the footnotes. There's two sections here on the footnotes. I'd like you to, bring your attention, page 28 and, page 43. So if you go to page 28, that's the capital assets,
Describer:
Page 54 of the Work Session Board Packet.
See the notes to financial statements. Page 28
3. Capital Assets
A summary of changes in governmental activity capital assets is as follows:
Depreciation for governmental activity capital assets has been allocated to
general government activity in the statement of activities.
As explained by Russell.
Russell:
that's the governmental capital assets, and approximately $60 million or $61 million net capital assets and approximately $46 million of that is, in an IGA agreement that's going to the city.
So when we look at this next year for 2025, governmental assets should be around $15 million. So going back to, going further into the footnotes, footnote number ten on page 42 and 43, talks about the $46 million, future conveyance.
Describer:
Page 68 of the Work Session Board Packet.
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
Notes To Financial Statements (Continued)
See the notes to financial statements. Page 42 & 43
10. IGAs With The City
IGA Regarding Transfer Of Stormwater System And Necessary Property
Rights
The District and the City entered into an IGA regarding the transfer of the
Districts stormwater system to the City (Stormwater IGA), effective January 25, 2023, which includes stormwater infrastructure and associated improvements, equipment and real property interests that are necessary and sufficient in order to maintain and operate the stormwater system of the District.
The Stormwater IGA also provides that the District transfer all available funds in the Storm Drainage Fund to the City to ensure the City has adequate funds to defray costs associated with the ownership and ongoing operation and
maintenance of the stormwater system. During 2023, the District recorded the
conveyance of assets to the City in the amount of $1,400,340 as required by the Stormwater IGA. There were remaining funds due to the City of $24,377 which were included in due to other government in the statement of net position as of December 31, 2023 and were remitted to the City in 2024.
IGA Between The City And District Regarding Operation, Maintenance
And Transfer Of Recreation Properties
The District and the City entered into an IGA regarding the transfer of the
Districts parks, recreation, trails and open space assets (Parks and Recreation IGA), effective March 31, 2023, in order to provide for the transfer of the responsibility for the ownership, operation and maintenance of the parks, recreation, trails and open space assets from the District to the City.
In accordance with the Parks and Recreation IGA, the District is to convey to the City all real property, buildings, fixtures, easements for parks and trails infrastructure and interests therein related to the recreation properties that are owned by the District. The District expects the conveyance of all such real property interests, facilities and fixtures to be completed in 2025. As of December 31, 2024, the net book value of capital assets expected to be transferred to the City is approximately $46,000,000.
The Parks and Recreation IGA also provides that the District transfer all 2023 available parks and recreation funds to the City to be used for the operation and maintenance of all parks and recreation properties for the benefit of the District taxpayers, the community of Castle Pines and for all persons using such properties.
Per the Parks and Recreation IGA, during 2023 the District transferred amounts for park improvements, conservation trust funds and general funds attributable to the Districts operations mill levy and miscellaneous revenues (less $650,000 to be used for 2023 water and wastewater expenditures). The total conveyance of assets to the City recorded by the District during
2023 of $11,269,406 is comprised of amounts related to park improvements, conservation trust funds and general funds of $3,606,890, $500,033 and $7,162,483, respectively. Of the $11,269,406, $8,904,964 was paid in cash to the City, with $935,501 of net book value of assets. In addition, there were remaining general and conservation trust funds of $1,428,941 due to the City related to the Parks and Recreation IGA which were included in due to other government in the balance sheet and statement of net position as of December
31, 2023 that were remitted to the City in 2024. In 2024, the District received additional funds attributable to the Parks and Recreation IGA that are to be remitted to the City, with $81,561 due to the City which are included in the due to other government in the balance sheet and statement of net position as of December 31, 2024.
Russell:
At the very top there. That first paragraph ties back to that page 28, which I just noted. But, with the Parks and Recreation IGA, approximately $46 million of assets are going to be transferred to the city. So again, that will reduce the the net assets in the governmental unit from 61 to, $15 million. from a budget standpoint, on page 44, general funds on target, as expected.
And then, on page 40, let me get the right page here. On page 47. And page 48 will pay attention to page 48.
Describer:
Page 75 & 76 of the Work Session Board Packet.
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
See the independent auditors report. Page 47 & 48
SCHEDULE OF REVENUES, EXPENDITURES AND CHANGES IN NET
POSITION (BUDGET AND ACTUAL) - ENTERPRISE FUNDS
For The Year Ended December 31, 2024
(With Comparative Totals For The Year Ended December 31, 2023)
Page 1 Of 2 and Page 2 of 2
As Russell explains it.
Russell:
If you look in the variance column, there total expenditures. We got a positive variance of $4.3 million. So why is that important? the state of Colorado looks at the the budget aspect of this audit report.
So when you got positive variances, they like that. But if you got negative variances, they don't like that. And if you don't doing a budget amendment to fix that, then they'll write you a letter. It's an administrative notice. to basically make sure that you're on top of your budgeting aspect. But overall total expenditures, you know, budget for 19, actual expenditures are 15, so a positive variance of $4 million.
So and that's, wraps up my quick 13 point, summer recap for the 2024 audit of the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District. Any questions?
Jason:
Give us just a minute here.
Tera:
So, yeah. back up on page 28. In your capital assets not being depreciated, it looks like land and improvements to land. There's still, you know, $46 million in there. Is that what's being transferred?
Russell:
It's going to be some of the some of that and some of the ones that are being transferred. Yes, that that would be it's a combination of those two.
I don't know what the exact number is on that.
Tera:
Sure. It just it seemed like I wasn't sure when the transfer of the land was happening. I mean, I know I thought it already happened because this isn't our building anymore. I know we're it belongs to the city, so I was wondering why that was still in the 20 kind of the 20.
Russell:
Because it was the plan was to get it to transfer by the end of 24. But that didn't happen in the actual transfer. It's, conveyance. Transfer. It's I don't believe it's been officially out of the I's across the T's yet that we'd have to ask.
Eric:
We've done part of it this summer, even though we committed to the obligation with the agreement.
So, I can't remember the exact date, but I think it was at the last board meeting or the, when, Kim brought the easements over. And so that was about 50%, probably their take. The difficult thing is we're going back in time with records associated with the capital assets. A lot of this may be developer records, things of that nature way back in time
Tera:
and then this and this may actually be for you, Eric.
Then on page 13, as I'm looking at the renewable water investment, it went up from 23 to 24. And I thought that renewable fee had been I'm curious about that because I know we stopped collecting that renewable water fee. So I was curious about why that investment went up so much from, 23 to 24.
Russell:
The 288 to the six, six, seven?
Eric:
Nathan, I might need your help on this one, but I do believe there's two components of the revenue associated here. We have the $15 monthly. $15 monthly SFE fee that was charged that property owners were paying indexed against their Tap fees. But there was also an impact fee that was collected on building permits. So that was, my guess without looking at the records.
That was a majority of it, and I believe that was around $15,000 per SFE.
Tera:
And then up on page 11 for the property tax receivable, why did it go down so much? It went to nothing in 2024.
From, 973 and 2023 then we had no property tax receivable?
Molly Janzen, Accountant:
the reason for that was at the 2023 audit, showed that we anticipated accounting for the property taxes in the water and wastewater fund. And one of the things that Eric and I did when we came in is evaluated that and determined that it probably should be back in the general fund. so that's the reason for that.
So you'll see there were receivable in deferred revenue in the general fund for property taxes.
Tera:
Thanks. and then it just was interesting also to me that, our property tax revenues went down so much in 2024. I'm back on page nine now at the very top that the property tax revenue went down significantly from 2023 to 2024.
Eric:
Yeah, correct. And that's a reflection of the decrease mill levy that was assessed on the. Yeah. So that's what that would be. I would I know it was 3.5 mills, you know, with a credit for statutory allowance with that. And I cannot recall, what the actual mill levy was for the prior year. But yes, it was a reflection of that.
And this year we have, we are collecting on 3.5 mills, of all the property within the boundaries of the district.
Tera:
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Jason:
Any other any other questions regarding this?
Hearing none. we can go ahead and close down the presentation. Thank you very much, Russell. Thank you. We'll move on to review the investment policy. Is that with you, Eric?
Eric:
yes, sir. again, one introduce, a draft investment policy for the board to consider, and review at this time. One of the things you may have recalled when we reviewed, the district's cash position and investment options several months ago was we needed to update the district's investment policy.
Describer:
On screen. Page 81 to 83 of the Work Session Board Packet.
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
INVESTMENT POLICY
Adopted July 28, 2025
1. POLICY
It is the policy of the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District (“District”) to invest public funds in a manner that will provide preservation of capital, meet the daily liquidity needs of the District, diversify the District’s investments, conform to all local and state statutes governing the investment of public funds, and generate market rates of return.
This Investment Policy (“Policy”) addresses the methods, procedures, and practices which must be exercised to ensure effective and judicious fiscal and investment management of the District’s funds. It replaces any previous investment policy or investment procedures of the District.
2. GENERAL
a. Scope.
This Investment Policy is applicable to all funds allocated by the District for investment purposes.
b. Investment Objectives.
The District’s principal investment objectives are:
i. Preservation of capital and protection of investment principal.
ii. Maintenance of sufficient liquidity to meet anticipated cash flows.
iii. Attainment of a market rate of return.
iv. Diversification to avoid incurring unreasonable market risks.
v. Conformance with all applicable District policies, State statutes and Federal regulations.
vi. Maximization of funds available for investment.
vii. Maximization of investment earnings consistent with the objectives outlined in this section.
c. Delegation of Authority.
As described by Eric.
Eric:
So Nathan, Molly, myself, along with Paul and his office, we have drafted, on page number, 81 of your packet, a investment policy which the for for that applies to local governments. And what this does is once it states for the record, the investment objectives of the public funds that, the board is in trust of, and then delegates that, daily and monthly authority to management to exercise and implement those goals as well.
So we tried to create a very, straightforward policy for us to read. So what you will see is your investment, your scope, and 2b your investment objectives. And I won't necessarily state you can see them right there on your screen, the delegation of authority, prudence with, and then a liquidity section as well. mainly, the ultimate goal is to make sure that these funds are liquid or can get, can be achieved or get those funds relatively quickly.
the applicable reporting section, noting that us as management will report to you as the board and the public, certain metrics around these investments and also noting it is a requirement for a board of directors to be a signer on all of these accounts as well, and have visibility in those accounts. and then, we also as a portion of section three, and we've basically referred back to the Colorado State Constitution, for all the requirements for local governments to, you know, all the securities that they can invest in.
And then, three A would be a diversification, rules that could that could be potentially implemented as well. So you have, what is original in this resolution or this policy is what, Paul in his office. And then the revisions were incorporated by Molly and myself into this document as also as a component of your packet we implemented or I provided as an example, Douglas County's investment policy.
Describer:
On screen. Page 84 to 96 of the Work Session Board Packet.
Investment Policy
Douglas County Colorado
Office of the County Treasurer
David Gill, Treasurer
Adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on May 11, 2021
On screen. Page 97 to 102 of the Work Session Board Packet.
RESOLUTION NO. 18-17
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CASTLE PINES, COLORADO
APPROVING AN INVESTMENT POLICY
Eric:
And we were able to pull that off on, and that is on page 84. And then also the town of Castle Pines, that passed a resolution to approve an investment policy. And that is on page 97, and I believe, Director Radloff, you or you will see your signature on that, policy as well. so once again, just to, wrap this up, the district does have a rather large balance sheet, of cash on hand.
So we do want to make sure that we're getting adequate, investment earnings as well, also mitigating certain risks. and as you may recall from, a couple of conversations, what is great about this, local government investment pools are often the tool that title 32 special districts use. And so that's what we continue to use. They have a couple alternative products that will look into but always to maintain diversification in those things as well.
So, the ultimate goal is to have an up to date investment policy that kind of aligns with industry standards, if you will. and then that way we can act and report on that back to you, the board. So, certainly can entertain any questions you may have on this policy at this time.
Tera:
Well, thanks for bringing all that forward and, ensuring that our investment policy is up to date and, that it will be reported regularly and it will fit those goals. That would seem pretty consistent throughout the municipalities. I guess I'm curious about, haven't touched base with any of the municipalities, but in regard to, you know, delegating the reporting to a investment type thing, is that something that's regularly used or is that something that we are considering?
Eric:
not at this time. There's certainly, advisory firms out there that could come to you as the board and present options. We're certainly getting to that point. I don't know offhand what the balance sheet is for the county, you know, but we're not large enough to have a Treasury Department to manage your investments. we did put provisions in here to that.
so that if we were to or if the board would like to execute a relationship with a financial advisory form, just offsetting that cost so that we get it's worth the present value, the, the money associated with it. but right now, we're seeing a lot of returns in the, investment market. And the local government investment boards is pretty good and pretty market based, and you're able to get liquidity within those within, I think, 48 hours, 24 to 48 hours as well.
So if we do need those funds, but certainly an option, don't go back and investigate further for you if you'd like to look at, look into.
Tera:
Well, in your opinion, what would be the size, what size would our portfolio hit before you would make a recommendation that we,
Eric:
it would be hypothetical, but first I would like to probably understand what the next five years look like for the capital plans of this district, whether or not we're going to remain custodial of those funds, are those going to go to an another local government or, I think we're getting I think we would be getting pretty close.
this is probably personally for me, the largest cash balance that we would have for a metro district or a special district to have, managing and pools. But, not to say it has been an issue before. I've seen up to about, like, 30 to $40 million. but then again, this district has brought on quite a large cash balance over the last few years as well.
I will go ahead and look into it and see, who is out there, and I may bring that back to you as well, if you like. Appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome.
Jason:
Great. Any other questions regarding the, investment policy? Hearing?
James:
not per se. you know, the tap fees and the development things have resulted in, you know, significant, cash increase in our balances last few years.
But, and again, this is a combination between, you know, question between you and Nathan, really. But, again, looking forward, uses for that money and things that we know we're going to need to do. Is there any, I guess, discussions or, you know, just top level stuff, 100,000ft kind of level of what we think we need.
And, you know, when we think we're going to need it. As far as I mean, we already have a significant amount of, pipe replacement projects going on and what have you. And water treatment and stuff. But beyond that, we have some of the lift stations and things like that. But have you guys overlaid those needs on a, you know, looking at 3 to 5 years, kind of just in a general sense of what that would result in as far as a reduction in that amount.
Eric:
this is actually perfect timing because that's something we met on last week, actually looking at the next five years of so looking at the cost associated with all of station project, the potential water tank project as well, and how we're going to finance those pieces associated with that. so yes, we have looked at that. we are we'll be implementing that as a component of our budget, and you'll see that in our rate case forecast.
So we can forecast out five, ten years this district's cash position based on what we know today. So, yes,
James:
thank you I appreciate it. Looking forward to it. Yes.
Jason:
All right. Great. Any other questions? All right. Hearing none. We'll go ahead and close out the investment policy. And we will go to our next item which is presentation.
The overview of the district state compliance calendar and 2026 budget process. Eric.
Eric:
Well, this is a finance heavy meeting. So, appreciate the opportunity. so just want to take a few, a little bit of time to talk about, all the requirements, that this team, your council, are, staying up to date on, as it relates to, the special district, a couple of references here.
Describer:
On screen. Page 103 to 110 of the Work Session Board Packet.
TO: Board of Directors – Castle Pines North Metropolitan District
FROM: Eric Harris, Elevated Clarity (EC)
DATE: July 21, 2025
RE: Work Session Report – July 2025 Board of Directors Meeting
Topic – Overview of District State Compliance Calendar & 2026 Budget Process
1.) Overview of District Compliance Calendar
a. Special District Law - Title 32, Article 1
b. Colorado Election Law - Title 1
c. Local Government Law – Title 29
d. Property Taxes – Title 39
e. Review of Exhibit A
f. Review of Project Management Schedule
2.) Overview 2026 Budget Process
a. Budget Process Starts July 1st
b. Elevated Clarity is coordinating with all Stakeholder and currently targeting a draft budget in September to be made available.
c. Review of Project Management Schedule
Eric:
You'll see. I won't necessarily read it into the record, but you can see all the different, title our Colorado, Constitution references that you see out there, related to how this district operates. And going on the next page, what you'll see is numerous, items and filings that this district has to take care of with the state.
there's certain things that are go without saying this, this district has to maintain a website. This district has to be ADA compliant. well, that might not be the correct term, but it has to account for audio visual impairment as well on its website, things that have to be searchable. but going through this, what you'll see is a chronological timeline for a calendar year.
and governments operate on a calendar year. that's an important note for here. So, what you'll see is, like things that are simple 24 hour notice before a meeting has to be the agenda has to be posted. Conflicts have to be taken care of for you and you as the board. 30 day, notice for any potential, increasing of water or enterprise rates.
so these are things that are good references to know, your budget year begins January 1st and ends on December 31st. You have to approve a budget as a component. And if you if this board does not approve a budget, it'll automatically get set up. I think 90% of your appropriations from the prior year get assessed for the next year that we have to track as management for you.
same thing of timelines associated with like a map filing or notice to electors things of that nature as well. a map filing, like I mentioned, notices to issue debt notices for elections. all these things are things that you're versed on, but things I do want to communicate to you that we are tracking on our side as well.
And that's the one big thing I would like to communicate to you tonight, is you have a team that are tracking all these obligations and compliance deadlines for you as well. As you mentioned, we as we just talked about, the district has to file an audit by July 31st of every single year or requesting, an extension of their for audit.
So these are just several things taken straight from the state website of, you know, a lot of it is election law. A lot of it is how property taxes are assessed and collected as well. namely, it gets to as we get into the second half of this year, is the district, as that I would say your consultants and, employees are required to give you a draft audit by October 15th of every year.
That's a that's a statutory obligation. So we'll be talking about this in September. But mainly, you know, we are required, you know, to provide notice to you as a board of a draft audit by that time budget. Sorry. Thank you. and then going to page, I believe the reference here is page 11. What you'll see is in our project management, tracking tool that monthly and I utilize is just all of those obligations in addition to other items that your district council will track from an elections perspective, from a notices perspective, that we have a tool in place.
And, Nathan, I started talking about, him potentially using this a little bit more on our side within our system, which we have options to do that as well. So, and it's a standard, it's a standard tool that tracks approvals, provides comments back and forth. has predecessors as well as time frame shift. We can adjust for those and cascade those through a project management schedule.
So just a tool that we use with elevated clarity to track all those obligations. So if there's any certainly any questions related to any, any items of this district's compliance, I can certainly take those now. Otherwise I'll just roll on to, the budget process.
James:
I had one on this guy. is this available for us as well?
Eric:
Can we? certainly. I can share it with you if you if you are interested in it. Now, it is fairly elementary. It's a smart sheet account that we can, but I can give you access to that as well.
James:
Even if it was just, you print out a PDF, like, say, once a month or so. Of course.
Yeah. I don't need active access, but it would be nice just to see what's in there. Okay. As a PDF or. And that way we don't have a chance of messing up your system.
Eric:
Fair enough. Yes, I can certainly provide that.
Tera:
I can say I can't think of anyone who's on this board who doesn't love at least a project tracking tool.
Eric:
Well, it helps when you have, a person in operations and, a couple of accounts that are extremely process driven. So we can do that for you. So, yeah,
James:
this was the you know, it seems like it's the thing I was kind of like talking about for like last year or two is, just be honest. You know, we talk about so many different projects and different things.
And when the timeline was something like this, simple, easy, digestible would be very helpful.
Eric:
Yes. And it's a solution that we provide for our clients as well, because we've identified when you sit down and look at a special districts, you know, if you quantify the actual projects that are involved, that we all may know, there's there's a lot and there's a lot of critical paths.
And so, it allows us as a, as a company to monitor all of that, those information. So certainly starting on page 112, you'll see kind of the exact same format.
Describer:
On screen an example of the project management tool the board has been discussing. It is a spread sheet style tool with lots of information which cannot be described here. Eric is describing it and you can refer to the board packet for your own review.
Eric:
and I did print this out or we had this printed on 11 by 17 sheet of paper, but it's still even quite small. but I will I would like just to kind of mention the general, budget process that we have going on right now.
we basically kick off our 2026 budget process July 1st of every single year. and so you've seen elements of this and prior board meetings. We've engaged several a couple consultants. We're looking at, you know, looking at vendors to identify costs. We're engaging for capital, looking at capital projects, and we're slowly dialing that in, at least as it relates to the next year's budget.
Over the next period of the next couple months, we do freeze that and create a three, five and ten year forecast. If you all associated with our rate case or cost of service study. So that's what we're going through right now. So what we've done is we've we finalized our audit or in the process of finalizing our audit.
So we know our numbers are, you know, good to go for the start of this year, you'll see those updated numbers in your budget. The actual at this next board meeting next week. and then from there we have been providing numerous data requests to, Bartle and Wells. this includes operational activity for all the property owners within the boundaries of the district for the last several years, looking at their tier, tier structures, their their uses as well.
activity. operational activity with the interconnect and also all the costs associated with those things. So we've, we're also, you know, got going through the district's capital plan as well to identify that, as I mentioned before. So what that does is over the next, you know, 30 days or so, Molly and I are looking at reviewing capital plans, utilities expenditures, standard operational expenditures for the district.
Nathan, I met on payroll for this next period, as well. And then we're looking at more of the strategic items related to timing, you know, and some of these things are, you know, and we're going to talk about this later proposal for office capital projects, you know, software upgrades, things of those nature, nature, asset transfer timing to the city of Castle Pines, so that we've adequately budget for that timeline of hidden point inclusion.
That was one of the big topics for us as staff. We were talking about this last week. and what does that look like? Because, of course it's going to impact property taxes and rate fee revenue associated for this district. So we're trying to hit those big ticket items right now for our baseline assumptions. And then we're also looking at what growth projections are left within the boundaries of the district.
So we can adequately forecast out assessed value and thereby whatever revenue needs are needed by this district in the future. And also looking at that, you know, the next several years, what are the objectives and all this is coalescing at a great time. Nathan is working on the study right now associated, with all the neighboring entities.
So we what we do is make the big pieces for this this time of the year. We try to adjust for the budget for it as it relates to next year's budget. And then where this goes through is several iterations, a review with your district manager as we go through impacts associated with this, several iterations of the rate cost of service study.
As we look at cash flows, one of the big things we're looking at is, wastewater lift station rehab right now. Well, technically those those have to be funded by the wastewater fund, which is a little if you look at the balance sheet, a little cash poor. So we're trying to figure out how to adequately get the cash balances where they need to go to finance these activities as well over the next couple of years.
There's something later on this agenda talking about an agreement with PCWRA, for potential debt service. So we want to make sure we capture the timing associated with all of these things. And where this all leads to is, to get you a draft budget for, more or less of after it passes by us several times a first board draft, by mid September, a second draft by mid October, by that statutory deadline we talked about and targeting an update, a final version of that in November for this board's consideration as well.
And that coalesces within it with any rate, rate or rate hearing, if you will. and where we go right into that is we certified the mill levy in December or mid-December, with a final assessed valuation that comes out around Thanksgiving time and that goes into a budget message or memo memo, for lack of a better term.
But it really is a narrative that has to be published with the budget that goes on the state, filed with the state by the end of January of this next year. And we overlay this with the communication firm, Sigler, that you've engaged as well, to make sure that we stay up to date with all the critical parts and get information out as necessary to the public, as well, with Nathan's guidance.
So there's a lot of moving parts. And so that's what we're working on over these next couple of months. so just would like to, if nothing else, would like to take in any general input right now if you have anything over the for the next couple years that this you know, this team would like to take back to the drawing board to get implemented with this budget.
any, other assumptions that we have not discussed? Well, Nathan has talked about headcount. that's one of the things we're looking at right now, general operations of the district. So once again, we're taking into account the timing, where this district is going. And, we look forward to giving you a budget here very shortly, because this time will be here pretty quickly.
So, once again, if there's any questions on the budget process can certainly entertain that now, for you and answer those questions, or if you would like to provide feedback to us, we can take that back to the drawing board and get that implemented. Thank you.
James:
again, as I hate to keep hammering is now, but, at the end of the summer, we typically have a big party down the park and we have a booth set up and what have you, and it's nice and it sounds like you're working towards it.
So I'm super happy with what you're saying. but if there's anything you know, as we look forward, you know, one year out or two years out, that we can get really well informed so we can answer questions when people come up to the booth like, you know, what are the near term projects kind of thing? What's the plan for, you know, 2026, 2027?
Really the big projects, the big things that are going to impact people. you know, I've already gotten zinged a couple of times with our shutting down monarch, and then we're also shutting down Castle Pines Parkway, sort of, kind of, and there's been some stuff on Nextdoor where people like good planning and stuff like that, you know, but we're talking about major projects here that, you know, are going to tear up the roads or potentially impact people's getting around town or fire response, that kind of thing.
yeah, that's more of a Nathan thing. But if you guys are in the planning stages and we can look at staggering this stuff out or doing it more intelligently and more integrated with what the city's, you know, planning and what have you, that's the only ask, really, is we kind of understand what those big things are, how they're going to impact people.
And then, you know, if you can just kind of feed us that information so we can answer questions when they come up. If, you know, residents ask not all that often, but as you can tell, there's not a lot of folks here, but, people do, you know, come up and ask us questions. So that kind of thing.
Tera:
So the metro district has shut stuff down other than emergency stuff. I mean, we've worked in conjunction with the city to put our pipe in.
James:
I'm not saying we shut anything down, but that's there's, there's people that sometimes say things like that, and then it's nice to have information to counter those arguments or explain things better. But those are kind of things that are said out in the open.
And it's it's nice when you can kind of talk through some of those things.
Tera:
Right? I mean, I, I just wanted to clarify, I was like, I, I wasn't aware that we had shut everything down. So one of the, but yeah, I mean, it sounds like you are coming up with a better picture. What's what the next 3 to 5 years is going to look like.
I, I'm thinking that we will see that any studies session of course. So yes.
Eric:
And what is great is it's good to report Nathan, I've talked about this pretty at length as this district has quite a few new assets that are going out outside of the pipe that's in the ground. You're going to have a brand new lift stations.
You have interconnect that is not that old. You have the filtered bed project going on. So a lot of cool things are great things rather to be more professional things happening within the district. that this board in this district should be proud of. but I will say, Molly and I were just talking the other day.
Hats off to Nathan. talking about upcoming capital projects. He's thinking ahead on what these things and strategizing on. You know, we have to do this with the city, do this time frame to, because there's this critical path done on this project. So there is a baseline assumption out there, that, there is a structure behind the spend, if you will, associated with all that.
And then in addition to that is we're bridging the gap on what's left on contracts for projects so that we, you just don't see an allowance of, you know, is adequate budgeting. Let's just put it like that. So you see, for the filter bed project will be spent this year. Then we account for that in next year's budget as well as it relates to those specific projects.
And then additionally, we're looking at, restructuring a little bit of the account coding, within the district. And so we expect to roll that out, you know, we might get to that by the end of the year hopefully, hopefully, and next year. And that may be, capital projects as it relates to capital projects in the past, how tracking was done.
It's just an individual account code. And then the next project will be the individual account code. What we would prefer to see is actual project tracking done within the system, which it has those capabilities to do in the future. we just have to set up our accounting system to account for those so that we can adequately look at life to date cost for projects outside of picking and choosing that data behind the scenes to get it compiled to show you that data.
So in the future, we'll see. you know, we can track activity by fund, by essentially the equivalent, profit and cost center and then inception to date on project as well, while hitting only certain account codes. So you can track indirect engineering costs, direct construction costs, things of that nature as it relates to, the account code otherwise.
Right now we have to go back to individual invoices and pull that data. So we're looking to make the, the jump to the current millennium, if you will, on how things are tracked in the accounting system over the next year or so.
Jason:
That's very encouraging. Fantastic. Yes. Thank you.
James:
And that's going to be like a WBS structure that I like.
Work breakdown. So you correct okay. Yeah. That can that can be super helpful to get you, you know visibility into where and how you're spending money and when you're spending money. But sometimes it's also it's a double edged thing too. Sometimes people go a little bit too nuts with the granularity of some of those buckets. Yeah. So, but the point I was trying to make before about, you know, back it up one step was, I think we have a fantastic story to tell of all the stuff that's been fixed that wasn't getting fixed for years and years and years.
and, you know, and then the story moving forward is really what I was looking for is, of course, I think it's, you know, we've we've knocked out a bunch of stuff really Nathan and and company, but, you know, we're just here kind of supervisory role, I guess. But, you know, it's still a great story, and it'd be good as we look forward again to, you know, 3 to 5 years, exactly what you guys are talking about.
So thank you.
Eric:
Of course, we'll provide that information to you.
Jason:
Great. Do we have any other comments? Hearing none. We'll go ahead and close out. the finance report. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Eric. Okay.
Tera:
Can I just want to. Are we. We've been. It seemed like we were behind audits and we were behind in a lot of our accounting stuff. And I know there's was some transition.
So are we. It looks like we're caught up on audit. Super exciting. And would you say that for our monthly financial operations that that we're kind of now firing on all cylinders and we're caught up and we're on track for day to day or.
Eric:
Yes, we are completely up to date. There's certainly some process improvements we would like to do.
there are certain things that take time. If you look at it's standard accounting, closed process with any sort of entity. we have still a lot of time associated with that. A lot of that is, we do need to implement new, upgrades to certain solutions, you know, within a not necessarily new accounting system. We're not looking at that, but it's just updates to different processes utilizing our, you know, I think the bank reconciliation there is about 2000 lines of data that goes into the this district's bank reconciliation.
But we are up to date in the form of, we have we don't have a reliance on CRS Colorado anymore to perform any function. And I will say, despite the, you know, the transition, that occurred, they were able to provide what I would consider everything that would be district property to us. So it allowed us and Molly and I to get in and dig through the details of it.
But yes, we are, we are off to the races. We're doing our own processes, and we're also looking to improve and document those process for you and Nathan so that you have those identified in the future as well.
Tera:
Well, thank you very much. I just every time I come and I see more detail on the financial information and the way that you answer questions and your knowledge, I am just I'm so thankful that we have you guys because everything is looking so much better and really, really good.
And and you've given me a lot of confidence. So thank you.
Eric:
You're most welcome. Thank you very much.
Jason:
All right. We'll go ahead and move on now to the legal section. I understand Paul's at home with Covid. So are you going to be handling this for him, Nathan?
District Manager Nathan Travis:
Indeed I will. Okay. I just wanted to bring this document back to the board's attention. So this is the intergovernmental agreement for a bond repayment. This is for the, reclaimed facilities at the wastewater treatment plant, PCWRA.
Describer:
On screen. Page 121 to 124 of the Work Session Board Packet.
INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT (Bond Repayment)
THIS INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT (“IGA”) is adopted and approved with an
effective date of _________________, 2025, by and among the Town of Castle Rock (the “Town”), Castle Pines Metropolitan District, acting by and through its Water and Sanitation Activity Enterprise (“CP Metro”), and Castle Pines North Metropolitan District (“CP North”) and Plum Creek Water Reclamation Authority (“PCWRA”). The Town, CP Metro, and CP North may be individually referred to herein as a “Member” and collectively as the “Members.”
RECITALS
A. PCWRA owns a reservoir (the “Reuse Reservoir”) for the storage and distribution of treated
wastewater which is used by four local golf courses for irrigation.
B. Each Member has within its boundaries at least one golf course which uses irrigation water
from the Reuse Reservoir.
C. PCWRA has determined the need to rehabilitate the Reuse Reservoir, including a new liner,
aeration system, a new pump station, and other capital improvements (the “Project”).
D. Each of the Members has determined that to secure and continue the availability of reuse water for golf course irrigation, the Project is in the best interests of its residents, taxpayers, and rate payers.
Nathan:
I don't think we are quite ready to take action on this yet, but, this document has been reviewed by Kim Seter and Paul. as well as the, Castle Pines village. And it was drafted by PCWRA. We're still waiting for comments. Back from Castle Rock. We are on the verge of getting our final price estimate for that project.
So then we had asked, Wes, the director at Wes Martin to go out again and get some better assumptions on those costs or some better projections on those costs, since we were operating off of some old ones. So I don't know that we're going to be doing anything on this just yet. And I just wanted to let you guys know that we're still still moving forward on it.
in speaking with Eric, it does it does appear that the financing this is more than likely the best way to go. so we would be responsible for 25% of the total project costs. this agreement caps that at $8.5 million. that is the total project cost, not our portion of it.
Eric:
So one of the things that we're doing in conjunction with the cost of service study is if you look back in the financials, what you will see is golf course delivery water, in the Water Enterprise Fund. The further we dig into this because it is reuse water, it is technically part and coming out of a discharge. And Nathan, please expand on this further.
from the treatment plant, technically it's out of the wastewater fund. And so we're looking at assessing a fee to to the beneficial property owners associated with the debt service for the for this as well. The challenge is we've looked at different items to do. We cash fund this ahead of time and take on that obligation as a district or do we pass it?
It makes more sense to pass that fee for the debt service on to those property owners, which would be the owners of the golf course. And so that's what we're looking at as well. And putting that. And so what you'll see is the revenues for next year's budget moved it to the wastewater fund to pay the applicable debt service that will be coming out of the debt service fund, as well.
Tera:
That makes a lot of sense. Of course, you know,
Jana:
does that mean that helps with the lift station issue that you were just referencing
Eric:
potentially. And that's what we're looking at as well as going, the there's the enterprises are technically you can think about as separate legal entities with their own balance sheet. they can loan money back and forth to each other as well.
there could be payments back and forth to each other as well. So that's one thing that we're strategizing on is what can we do to account for that? Your attorneys, the district's attorneys, ourselves, to get money over, you know, that we're technically requesting in the current year that we have been for several years billing out of the water fund, or should it just be a loan back and forth as well, that to further pay for this loan that would be collected in current year revenues for the golf course?
So I don't know the answer to your question yet, but we are looking at that.
Nathan:
Yeah. So the ridge has been made aware of this. they've had I've had discussions on and off with them for the better part of two years now. So they, they know that it's that it's coming in, that it's going to impact their rates. So they're, we're obligated by November 15th of any given calendar year to let them know if we're going to be doing a rate increase for the following year.
So they're it's on their radar.
Tera:
And you said that you didn't think this was quite ready yet. Can you expand on that?
Nathan:
The the project is ready. The design is ready to go. We are just trying to get the, updated cost projections to make sure that the one that the $8.5 million that we've capped in this agreement is going to be enough to cover the project.
and so we should have those numbers by the we were hoping to have them this week, but we should have them by the end of the month, certainly by the next board meeting or the August board meeting.
Eric:
And so the PCWRA and ourselves, as members of the authority will receive a financing plan associated with it. So we'll be able to look at all the inflows and outflows associated with the settlement of those funds. to Nathan's credit and the board over at the authority, they're going after some low cost financing through the state revolving program.
you only have two options that go to market, twice a year. You know, one option in the spring, one option in the fall. And so they're trying to hit that in October as well. And so I can't remember the name of the exact program, but I think it's listed in here. this is Nathan, I have been talking about this agreement for quite some time.
there might be some potential changes associated with underwriters Council once it gets to that point. but this is essentially the obligation of the tie, this district obviously to that, to that financial instrument.
Jason:
All right. Thank you very much for the presentation.
We'll go ahead and close out legal and we'll move on to item five, the district manager. the first topic is review and discuss revised employee handbook. Nathan, what do you want to show us?
Nathan:
Yep. So, Director Mulvey. sorry. Wrong button here. Director Mulvey had asked that we bring this back to look specifically at the PTO accruals.
Describer:
On screen. "Leave Time Calculated in Days"
The writing on this chart of too small to explain. Nathan will explain. It is a chart comparing the leave policies of all peer districts in the region.
Nathan:
so this is a list of several other districts, and their general PTO policies. This was compiled by Lisa Olicker down at, PCWRA. So I am very thankful to her for that because this was quite a lift. So the this chart attempts to take all of the different types of systems that different organizations use and turn it into an apples to apples comparison.
the where we have been.
kind of ranked on this list. This is mostly just by the total max paid days leave per year. so we're a little bit on the low end of that. The, number above that, the 48.125 days, that is the maximum number of days that could be paid out upon an employee leaving in the organization. So for us, that is the maximum PTO accrual, for an employee that has 20 years of service with the district, I was spare the board of going through the entire chart.
But if anybody has any other questions or anything, we want to dig a little bit deeper on, we certainly can.
James:
Yeah. Just do me a favor and just, slide it over and then just go down the vertical column and just no no the other direction so I can see the left side. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. Okay, so, so,
So what's the advantage of lumping the sick leave into the the other, types of leaves per year?
Nathan:
I do not have an answer for that question. We have an yeah Jana got an idea?
Jana:
Oh, I have an answer for this one, Jim. Because if you put it in a separate sick leave bank, then it usually gets different requirements for how long you have to hold it, how many hours you can have, etc..
And so then ultimately the metro district would function almost as a bank while people just collect the sick hours and then they would get paid out if they were to leave. So I've seen this a different municipalities where they're going away from sick banks because they don't want to hold, you know, when when people get up to the 800, 800 hours of sick leave that they've never used.
James:
So, okay, okay. That makes sense. And that kind of comports with what I've seen in other places. some of the legacy things back east, people would get things they call boat checks when they left jobs. you know, we're getting $2-300,000 worth of sick time.
Jana:
That's what this that's what this is preventing so that the cash doesn't have to be held for that 20 year employee who's collecting and collecting.
So. Okay. Thank you.
Nathan:
And this is isn't a significant change over the way that we've been doing it for a number of years. We've had this kind of one PTO bank for my entire tenure with the district. really the only change is, adding, one day of total PTO across all levels is the only, increase or the only change over our current policy.
and then the other change, which isn't really reflected in this chart, is the number of, PTO hours that you can carry being also tied to your tenure with the district. So the it's more directly tied with the amount of PTO that you earn, rather than just having a one lump cap that fits everyone.
James:
thanks for putting that together or whoever.
I forget what her name was. Lisa. Lisa. But, Thank you.
Nathan:
Yeah, absolutely.
Tera:
Great. So there, what's the max that we would carry? Because we don't have a use or lose policy. We do. So the max we would carry for an employee that's been here for 20, for 20 years, is that 40? 48.125 okay. Days. Thanks. David,
Jason:
any other questions regarding this?
Nathan
137 well, Eric's was able to find the packet page number here, and I.
Describer:
On screen. Page 137 of the Work Session Board Packet.
Accrual Rates table
Years of Service 0 – 4 Years Accrual Rate (Per 1 hour Worked) 0.0655 X hours worked Maximum Accrual (hours) 205
Years of Service 5 – 9 Years Accrual Rate (Per 1 hour Worked) 0.0846 X hours worked Maximum Accrual (hours) 265
Years of Service 10 – 19 Years Accrual Rate (Per 1 hour Worked) 0.1039 X hours worked Maximum Accrual (hours) 325
Years of Service 20+ Years Accrual Rate (Per 1 hour Worked)0.1232 X hours worked Maximum Accrual (hours) 385
Eric:
Sorry, the full time on page 137, you have the PTO accrual rate table. granted by years of service accrual rate and the maximum hours. just as you look at this, one thing that we do as a component of year end closes, we actually financially value, the employees PTO, and we put it on the balance sheet as a liability to pay out in the potential because it is technically an accrued liability.
and then, of course, under state, state law, certain PTO is is paid out upon employees the dismissal or leave or leave of an organization.
James:
one more question on the PTO accrual rates. I understand the hours and years and stuff, but is the payout, tied to what their rate was at the time it accrued, or is that just kind of roll forward?
Eric:
It rolls forward. So it would be at their current rate. So one thing I can report as we just transition to, a new payroll system. So you may notice this when you receive, any sort of board payment checks in the future. director payments. but we have the ability to electronically track all this, and I can certainly we I can look into potentially valuing that differently as well.
I'm not the expert on, you know, what's right or wrong in this circumstance, but as a practice, we value it at current rates in the district. And then, of course, if an employee leaves that organization, it'll be paid out at that current rate.
Jason:
Okay. Any other questions. All right. We'll go ahead and close down. or close out the review. discuss the employee handbook, and we'll start, the discussion with, best practices and workflows for board received inquiries.
Describer:
On screen. Page 151 to 153 of the Work Session Board Packet.
Best Practices & Workflow for Board-Received Inquiries
Purpose
To ensure that Castle Pines North Metro District (CPNMD) provides professional, consistent, and timely responses to resident emails and other inquiries received by the Board of Directors. This guidance supports CPNMD’s values of transparent, clear, and responsive communication while preventing conflicting or duplicate responses.
General Guiding Principle
Always email Nathan (nathan@cpnmd.org) about direct inquiries and cc
serviceaccounts@cpnmd.org and other board members. Nathan will handle emails to the board@cpnmd.org email, responding with the serviceaccounts@cpnmd.org email and cc all relevant board members. This ensures the Communications team stays informed and allows for a unified, accurate, and timely response and ensures that the Board and staff present one clear voice.
Nathan describes this document.
Nathan:
again, this isn't a document I necessarily want to take a lot of time on. the genesis for this is really just making sure that we have a policy in place that handle that addresses when residents email the board of directors.
I feel fairly lucky with this current board. You guys are really fantastic. And not responding to residents and putting us on the hook for things. but it there has been a little bit of a disconnect. Just when you guys see the email or based on when I see it, we'll get kind of this, kind of uneven resident response.
So we'll get individual emails from different board from different board members. I'll get in. Sometimes board members are replying to them after an issue has already been resolved. So I talked to Sigler about that and had them draft this policy for us. so I just wanted to get it in front of you to, just have plenty of time to go through it, address any concerns, anything like that I won't be bringing it to, actually put it in place and make it official until Sigler is here with us, in August so we can address it, or put it in place then.
But I just wanted to make sure that the board had plenty of time to review it, go through, give me any notes, any concerns, any questions.
Jason:
Under your, general guiding principle, the very first line is, about, directing inquiries to the service accounts, email address. And then the next thing it says and other board members.
Well, that's kind of going against sunshine.
Nathan:
Yeah, I need to that's I noted that one as well. I need to have Paul review that and make sure that we just don't need to. My guess is that we just need to adjust that slightly so that, you know, those things are coming to me. And then I'm copying other board members and service accounts.
but I wanted to address that with them. I for the purposes of this meeting, I didn't make any comments on the actual document, but I agree. And then the service accounts at CPNMD, and that's just the email address that we, have all of our communications platforms on. So Facebook, all of that use that service accounts as a backdrop.
And so Sigler has access to that. So they have access to those accounts. It's just a really easy way to keep them in the loop.
Tera:
So we're in this basically there's an auto reply that says that you've seen it. But I want to know that you've seen it. So how how am I going to know that. Yeah, I'm on this.
Nathan:
And that's my responsibility to make sure that we they get the auto reply. And then I am communicating to the board, and I think that that also goes to what Jason was just pointing out, that I need to be the one copying all the board members on the response as well.
Tera:
Well, yeah, I mean, it's for internally, I don't need to respond to a, resident if I know you've seen it, but, you know, we don't we're not in the office, so I don't know whether you've seen it or not.
So I, I want the assurance that you've seen it. They're getting an auto reply that says you've seen it. I understand that, but how am I going to know that you've seen it? Because I'm happy to let you handle it.
Nathan:
Yeah. I'll talk I'll talk to Singler about that.
Tera:
But I need the assurance that I'm on this. I've seen it and I'm on it.
Because I do think it's appropriate for, you know, usually have the the knowledge to respond intelligently. And I think usually when I, when I reply, I just like acknowledge I have it and that I'm looping you in and that you're on it. and I know we don't copy the rest of the board again for sunshine laws, and if you're getting that five times, that's not efficient.
But I'm, I'm happy to do whatever. As long as you're what I need, I need to know that you've seen it.
Nathan:
I'll make sure that's clearly accounted for. That's great point. Thanks.
Jason:
Does this account, does this go to some kind of ticketing? So when an email like this comes in, does it get a ticket assigned to it and then a progress.
Nathan:
currently it does. And so this is really just somebody that either goes on our website and pulls one of your individual email addresses and emails you directly, or emails the board at CPNMD.org. So there's not any active tracking on those right now.
Jana:
But I thought we were working towards a ticketing system where it says in progress or closed.
Nathan:
That was for, web responses through the website. And we do have that in place.
Jana:
So we wouldn't want to add emails that were inquiring on something to that, because that's kind of what I've seen is a citizen inquiry. It's logged into the ticket. And then that's where Tera could see in progress, meaning Nate changed it to I'm on it or closed.
And then, you summarize the response. So okay.
Nathan:
Yeah, that's that's something I'll have to look, I don't see.
Jana:
I was going to say I think there's a lot of programs out there that we could, we could use, but, but that's my thought to answer Tera's concern as he's on it or not started or not. what's one of the other ones like delegated to, you know.
So yes. Yes. assigned. Yes. That's a better way.
Nathan:
We can definitely look into like a software solution for that right now. And that would be helpful. Anyway, since we're dealing with multiple resident communications streams anyway. Just a place to funnel them to. That'd be great.
Jana:
It also is a nice, matrix to track how long responses are taking, because that's another thing that, you know, we're responding within 48 hours or we're responding in two weeks.
You know, we'll be able to see if we're serving the community that way.
Jason:
Nathan, I think I mentioned this last time, this guy brought up that, you know, we already have a Microsoft account. There's a SharePoint template that's set up for helpdesk, and you can create tickets through it, and then it can do basically what we're asking.
And we use something we've already paid for. So.
Jason:
Perfect. Yeah. Is there anything else we want regarding this. Not nothing I have. All right. Good. All right. We'll, close that down, and, we'll enter a discussion about the Castle Pines Community Center modifications.
Describer:
On screen. A Cad Drawing of a proposed renovation of the Castle Pines Community Center. Nathan will describe.
Nathan:
So this is something that I've alluded to at a couple board meetings. The city of Castle Pines is looking at doing a pretty massive renovation to the room that we are sitting in.
we do have a plan and a cost for that in place or not in place, but, available. And so this is just kind of a general overview of what they would like to do with the room. A very high level. it's installing a drop ceiling, trying to preserve the natural lighting, demoing the room above you and everything behind you.
this would then become a space for a permanent diocese of the theater. room. The conference room upstairs. All of that would be replaced. And then we would also be adding a, smaller conference room that would sit in this. Well, the city would be adding a smaller conference room that would sit in that back corner, very much designed and geared toward executive session.
So with all of the soundproofing and things that would come with that, the projected price on this, is right now coming in at $591,000. That does not include any audio video components. So one of the ultimate goals of this project are to be included in this project is to help make broadcasting meetings a lot easier. So putting whatever technology solution in place that, we work with in the, in conjunction with the city to identify, to help with that kind of broadcasting.
the city is asking that of the 591,000, they're very back of the napkin. Rough estimate for the audio visual is another 50 to 100,000. They they're ask is that this board considered contributing to the cost of that project. And they've asked us to contribute $200,000.
Jason:
So I, I talked to Tracy about this after I got your email, Nathan, because I really had no idea what they were really thinking about doing. And, you know, I thought the total went up a little bit higher, close to 700,000 by the time everything was said and done that
Nathan:
that's the, with the projected $100,000 for the audio video?
Jason:
Yeah. you know, my whole thing is this building is in need of care. the outside is terrible. The, inside here is not good. the city's response was that, they are running out of time that they can use for the library. And so they need meeting space and, instead of building a, a town hall, they estimate that would be $6 million.
They would rather spend almost $1 million and renovate the inside of this place.
So.
Tera:
I'm really kind of surprised that for what needs to be done here and how old this building is, I, I think that looks like a really low estimate. And it is, the first time I need to process it a bit. It's the first I'm seeing.
It's like, okay, well, we took over your building and we kicked you out. We're not going to give you a priority for your meetings in the building that used to be yours and is now ours. And, oh, by the way, will you participate financially in it? I need a little time to process that.
James:
so a question you you guys currently have office space that you utilize, you know, full time.
What happens? you know, past that point, like, you do the renovation and it gets reconfigured. You guys still going to be resident here and we pay rent back to the city or, you know, how does that work?
Nathan:
Yeah. So under the under the current agreement, the lease agreement we have in place is your will will be a resident.
We can stay here as long as we exist. the city doesn't have any real ability to kick us out. and right now, that lease amount is a dollar a year. And so I think that's also part of the drive for, you know, asking for our participation in this construction. One thing that Eric and I briefly discussed would, maybe be letting the city go ahead and pay for all of it and do whatever they want to do in here, keep our lease in place, but actually put, like a real lease agreement, not a real lease agreement for one that has a commensurate cost associated with that.
Jason:
Well, either way, it's the same residents paying for this, whether it comes out of our budget or comes out of the city's budget, it's still the residents that are paying this.
Tera:
Are there any plans to fix, the you know, we could bury body in the pothole in the parking lot. So that included in this plan, if they're going to upgrade the building, are they going to fix the parking lot?
Nathan:
it is not currently included in the plan. So I did bring that up to Michael, specifically the paint on the outside of the building.
At a minimum, the parking lot, is in disrepair. The retaining wall that's out front, he didn't seem to have, they didn't indicate that they had any real desire to work on those things at this time, but I think that might be worth bringing up in those continuing discussions. It's just going to be,
Tera:
this building is so old.
What is their contingency if they find asbestos or, you know, other structural issues?
Nathan:
I mean, we're in I think this building was built in the 82 or 83. So yeah, I don't think we have any asbestos concerns but.
Jana:
Okay I have a thought. So the 200,000 that's the ask. It's roughly 30% of the total. I'm with Tera that that seems a little low like that.
You can do all that for 700. But then I'm also thinking, wouldn't you need to expand the parking lot? Aren't there? So not even potholes like just in general. The people coming in the parking lot fits our group, not necessarily council meetings. So I would want to make sure that we if they kept scope creeping, that we weren't on the hook for 30% of the like, if it kept going so that maybe we had the, you know, confirmation of we can do 200, we're budgeting it.
but I'm also okay if we decide that we want to do some kind of agreement where we're paying monthly but, I don't know. And you're sure they're not trying to move their offices over here to, like, they're going to stay where their offices are, correct? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. well, then just my $0.02 is I would rather see a building that already exists in our town be renovated than buy a new building for 6 million.
So that's my gut.
Tera:
Right. And they they will never do that. They had an opportunity to do it before it was $6 million. But, But I'm not bitter, but it does seem not well thought out that you would upgrade this building so that people could come to your meetings and they can't fit in the parking lot, and they can't get through the parking lot.
That seems really like, why would you make a good improvement here and leave? That just doesn't make any sense to that. To me, is not.
James:
Yeah. And by the time you we end up, you know, upgrading the parking lot so it's, you know, handicap accessible. I mean it's kind of is the you got the ramp and everything, but I think by the time you subtract those spaces that you're required to and you have enough, you know, the council meetings tend to be more well attended.
I think it's going to be problematic. So it's definitely you guys. You should talk to them about it. And and then any other future uses for a community center type activities.
Tera:
It's it's good, you know, to Jana's point like make sense to try to. Maybe repurpose something that's been here. but I also I mean, we used to have a railing that went down the steps and they took that out.
I don't know why. I guess because it the, the steps become very, very icy. So those are kind of hard to maintain. I don't I just feel like they haven't thought through everything.
Jason:
Right? I don't have a problem with them wanting to do the inside, but they need to take care of the outside too. I mean, it's the stucco has fallen off the the the walls out here.
It's the half the lighting doesn't work. there's a lot of things that need to be addressed outside as well as inside. Absolutely.
James:
one more question. since we're talking about increasing staff and things like that, is that kind of factored in with the amount of space we currently have, or is that going to be a problem, or is that going to get rolled into an upgraded plan here?
Nathan:
the longer term for us increasing staff that would largely be on the operation side.
So if we do need to increase our office presence here, we could repurpose that smaller conference room, especially with this one existing. but from operations perspective, most of these guys are gonna be over at the treatment plan anyway.
Tera:
I think we're we're open to hearing more as it, you know, and maybe the same type of, participation like we have in the in the other lease agreement that we looked at where we get capped at something. But, but yeah, that generally doesn't seem like a well thought out plan or it's not fully thought out at this point.
Yeah. I've got maybe they were just wanting to know.
Nathan:
Just. Yeah, yeah. I've got a meeting with Michael later this week and I can definitely bring those concerns. And
Jason:
I know for the walk through, you know, Tracy was here and Michael is here in the contractors. maybe you want to invite a board member to be represented here as well.
We do go through a walk through with a construction company.
Okay. Anything else? Okay. We'll go ahead and close down that item, and I guess we can adjourn the meeting. Thank you all.