Boulder staff outline 2026 advocacy priorities, council sends edits to IGA for refinement

Heather Stauffer, the City of Boulder’s new Intergovernmental Affairs Officer, presented a draft 2026 policy statement that staff said is intended to guide council and staff advocacy at the regional, state and federal levels and to prioritize where the city will use political capital in 2026.

Stauffer said the policy statement is a framework for consistent messaging and quick responses on issues like housing, mental and behavioral health, climate resilience and transportation. She identified one regional priority and a set of state and federal priorities staff recommends advancing this year. “Our city’s policy statement creates a framework that’s intended to provide clear guidance for staff and council, as well as the community, on how the city will handle various issues and topics that we encounter on the regional, state and federal levels,” Stauffer said.

Will Coyne, the city’s state‑level consultant, told council to expect a busy session and a constrained budget environment in Colorado. He said many bills will be introduced but that the state’s fiscal pressures (a roughly $1 billion budget challenge referenced by staff) will make proposals that require new general‑fund spending difficult to advance.

Staff recommended keeping the city’s regional priorities largely unchanged (housing, behavioral health) and advancing four state priorities and five federal priorities. State items highlighted included protecting full funding for homelessness infrastructure programs, establishing on‑bill repayment programs to make energy upgrades accessible, protecting essential state funding and careful cleanup of artificial intelligence consumer‑protection legislation so it doesn’t impose unreasonable liabilities on the city. Federal priorities included support for congressionally directed spending requests, prioritizing pass‑through of federal transportation funds to locals and support for full authorization of Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs).

Council discussion centered on the level of detail the policy statement should carry. Several council members said the priorities section should be actionable so staff’s advocates know what to pursue; others urged avoiding overly prescriptive language that could box staff in. One councilor objected to a provision (paragraph 22) that the speaker said reads like a formula for surrendering Home Rule authority; that councilor asked that those cases be handled individually rather than codified.

Legal and staff guidance: the city attorney advised that study‑session straw polling is appropriate for direction. Council used a straw poll to send several councilors’ suggested edits (submitted through hotline and in‑session proposals) to the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee for vetting and drafting. Staff said the December 4 vote deadline could be adjusted and that more detailed edits and discussions would be scheduled with IGA in the near term; staff also committed to monitoring the Joint Budget Committee and state budget developments during the session.

No formal policy vote was taken in the study session. Staff will return with a refined draft for formal consideration after IGA review and further council direction.