City Council Priorities

What are City Council Priorities?

After a new City Council is elected, it has a one- or two-day retreat with city staff to identify priority projects for the Council's two-year term. The current Council has 11 priorities (see/hear recordings of the April 2024 retreat here and here).

Council priority projects may include:

• speeding up work that was already planned (e.g., completing the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Major Update in 2026 rather than 2027)
• having more input on ongoing work (e.g., the Climate Action Plan, which was already happening in 2024-2025)
• initiating new work (e.g., the Day Services Center)

How does a Council choose its priorities?

Before the retreat, Councilmembers receive information from Boards and Commissions, staff, advocacy groups, and community members. Those who recently won elections also gather information on the campaign trail.

Councilmembers use all of these sources to generate ideas for Council priorities. Once they have ideas, they discuss them with staff to determine what is feasible.

In the weeks before the retreat, Councilmembers receive information about their ideas' budgetary and staffing impacts and how they fit in with ongoing and upcoming departmental work. Once finalized, each Councilmember submits three to five for consideration as Council priorities.

Councilmembers pitch their ideas at the retreat and then discuss and vote as a group to arrive at a set of 8-12 priority projects. The larger and more involved the projects, the fewer priorities the Council can have. The Council also can't overload any one department or division, so there needs to be some diversity of topics.

Why can't Councils do whatever they want?

Councils cannot upend the city's mundane work without creating chaos for residents, workers, students, and visitors and violating the city's charter and code.

The rule of law still applies in Boulder. It requires significant staff and Council work to uphold.

The city must maintain its roads, water services, and other essential utilities and infrastructure. It must also process applications for new decks, home remodels, and developments. The city must maintain its parks, staff recreation centers, manage parking, and more.

This routine work accounts for most of staff's time in any given year, leaving a small amount of city staff's time for new initiatives like Council Priorities.

Can the Council take on new initiatives after deciding on its priorities?

Rarely.

Staff begins working on the priorities shortly after the Council's retreat. The priority projects are rarely straightforward. Most take 12-24 months to complete, and some take more. The larger and more involved the projects are, the less time is available to take on other work during the Council's term. And the more easily progress on priorities can be disrupted by additional, unplanned work.

Once the Council sets its priorities, five members must agree for the Council to take on new, Council-initiated projects (a "nod of 5"). Councilmembers who want to do something new or significantly differently can ask the Council Agenda Committee to schedule a time to discuss whether a majority desires to shift staff time and resources to a new priority and slow down or pause existing work.

Sometimes, a Council majority can ask staff to incorporate new ideas that don't require much extra work into existing work via a nod of 5.

Is the Council retreat the primary time to convince a Council to do new things?

Yes.

How does the midterm check-in fit into the Council's Priorities?

The mid-term check-in occurs about halfway through a two-year Council term. At the mid-term check-in, Councilmembers receive updates on the Council's and departmental priorities and progress on the Citywide Strategic Plan.

In theory, the Council could use the midterm check-in to set new priorities if it committed to priorities that would only take 6-9 months to complete at its initial retreat and midterm check-in.