Brighton City Council Looks to Improve City Services, But Residents Still Speak Out

The Brighton City Council took its first steps toward solving recent problems with city upkeep at last night's meeting, but it wasn't enough to keep residents from continuing to complain.

Multiple Brighton residents spoke up at the meeting for the , even as the city tried to address complaints from the previous meeting as well as general grievances against the city's upkeep.

City Manager Dana Foster advised City Council to move forward with re-looking at past budget documents, saying that while the city looked at the numbers for the cuts they needed to make, they didn't look at the affects of those cuts would be down the road.

"What we're looking at now is in a way, a cumulative effect of three years running of line item cuts ... again, maybe we didn't spend enough time talking about what might be the implications," he said. "We showed you the numbers, but we may have not really gone into it as far as that goes."

The Council agreed and allowed Foster to come up with some inputs on how to move the numbers around by the next meeting on Aug. 18. Also, Foster and Department of Public Services Director Matthew Schindewolf spoke about plans to remedy problems with city cemetery upkeep and algae growth that had been brought up by residents at the July 24 meeting.

However, those explanations weren't enough to satisfy concerned residents.

Brighton resident Mary Holliday repeated pleas to fix potholes and cracks in roads as well as her cries of the Mill Pond neglect. She called on the Downtown Development Authority to assist with the pond.

"Instead of buying unpopular statues with questionable meanings, the DDA should offer to assist with the chemical treatments to lessen the effects of the scum buildup," she said.

After the first public hearing concluded, Councilmember Jim Muzzin offered his own response. He didn't address any specific questions, but advised residents to not criticize city staff, since City Council makes policy.

"With all due respect, if you don't like how policy is set, vote with your pen. If you'd like before November, you can vote with your feet," he said.