Monument’s council heard the draft 2027 budget and gave no formal direction on either question it posed, learned that the bid for the northbound lanes of Jackson Creek Parkway has moved from October to December, and accepted five drainage tracts from the Conexus development after staff said two of them may have been taken out of Triview Metropolitan District in 2023. Every vote was 5-0, with Councilmembers Marco Fiorito and Chad Smith absent.
The budget: two questions, no formal answer
Finance manager Laurie Young presented the draft 2027 budget in the absence of finance director Jennifer Phillips, and Steve Murray walked the Town Council through the town’s first five-year capital improvement plan. No vote was scheduled. A slide headed “Council Consideration of Budget Options” asked two things: whether to direct traffic impact fees, which the town charges on new development, toward the southbound lanes of Jackson Creek Parkway, and whether to fund two police officer positions “with knowledge that Legacy development will generate additional revenue to fund positions in 2028 and beyond.”
The council made no decision on either. The southbound lanes drew the longer discussion. The capital plan prices them at $8 million, schedules construction for 2029 and names no funding source; the draft expects $2.39 million in traffic impact fees in 2027, against $100,000 budgeted for 2026, which staff attributed to new development. Mayor Mitch LaKind asked whether developers along the southbound side could be made to pay, and said developers, not a bond issue put to voters, should cover their impact on the road. Planning director Dan Ungerleider said some of those properties already have development agreements that set their parkway contributions, including land south of the YMCA, and that staff will bring a recalculated transportation impact fee after the new year, based on the transportation master plan now under way. The town does not yet “have a silver bullet” to make the second phase happen, Ungerleider said. A member noted that if the town’s use tax question passes in November, that money also goes to roads; staff agreed.
No member stated a position on the two police positions. The draft adds one new officer and a police records specialist, and the finance staff’s memo says two more officers requested by the police chief “are not funded in this draft budget.” Asked what drives the jump in projected sales tax, Young pointed to Legacy at Jackson Landing, the Target-anchored development east of Interstate 25, and to new businesses including a Panda Express and a Dairy Queen. Staff called the 3 percent sales tax assumption conservative and said Legacy will not be finished at the start of the year, so its sales tax will lag.
The general fund, which pays for most town services, takes in $16.31 million and spends $16.97 million in the draft. Employees would get a 3 percent raise, up from 2 percent in the August version; police pay also reflects a 6 percent step increase, staff said, and general fund wages rise about 15 percent with the new positions. The draft moves $2 million of the general fund’s reserve into asset replacement, a new emergency fund and a new economic stabilization fund. The five-year forecast then shows the general fund spending more than it takes in every year through 2031, when its unreserved balance falls to 6.2 percent of spending against a line on the same table reading “Minimum % Required = 20%.”
LaKind said there was no logical reason to show the town intentionally spending more than it takes in, that a forecast with the town “getting into the hole” every year was not reassuring, and that reserves are meant for emergencies. Town manager Madeline VanDenHoek answered that the forecast is not a budget, that revenues are growing at about 3 percent while expenses grow faster, and that “this is not sustainable.” Murray added that the 38 percent reserve projected for the end of 2027 excludes the money set aside in the new designated funds.
Members raised other items for the November draft:
- The council’s own budget, which rises from $138,500 to $208,700. Members questioned it, including the cost of sending members to Colorado Municipal League conferences, and Mayor Pro Tem Steve King suggested taking roughly $80,000 to $100,000 out. Staff said it had funded the conferences so that council members elected in November can attend, and asked for specific cuts before the final draft.
- The municipal court, whose expenses exceed its revenue. LaKind asked for an audit of whether the court is assessing and collecting the fines attached to tickets.
- Police, which a member asked, and others agreed, to see in one presentation combining the general fund and the voter-approved 2F police fund.
- The Fountain Creek Watershed District. LaKind proposed dropping the town’s contribution to the Fountain Creek Watershed District, $8,000 to $9,000 a year by LaKind’s account, because the district and the county did not seat the nominee Monument put forward for the board’s small-municipality seat. The district’s website lists that seat as vacant. Another member suggested keeping the money in the budget and withholding payment until the district acts.
Young said the final draft and a second amended 2026 budget come back on November 2, with adoption set for December 7. Staff also told the council it must hold a special meeting on December 14 to meet its mill levy deadline, and suggested canceling the regular meeting on December 21; members who spoke agreed, and no vote was taken.
The parkway bid moves to December
The capital projects fund carries $8 million for the northbound lanes of Jackson Creek Parkway in 2027, $808,923 of it from the town and the rest from state and federal grants. Asked by LaKind whether the project was going to bid this month, staff said they hoped to put it out in December, citing redesigns, property acquisitions, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s specifications and the re-engineering that followed the decision to build one side first to lower the cost. LaKind replied that the council’s priorities had not changed and that the funding is there. Construction is expected to start in February or March, depending on the bids. Parts of the grant money would be lost if the project did not start next year, staff said, and keeping it has been “priority number one.”
Resolution 75-2026, approved 5-0, is part of keeping that schedule. The new lanes need stormwater detention. A regional detention pond had been planned on land south of Higby Road, Ungerleider said, but the owner was not willing to dedicate the site; the owner is now talking with the town again. Until something is worked out, the town will build a temporary pond in the Higby Road right-of-way between the parkway and the highway, and the lines of Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District No. 1 that run there have to move. Under the agreement the town’s road contractor does the work under one contract. The town pays to lower the district’s raw water main, which sits in easements, estimated in April at $44,650.76; the district pays to relocate its sewer main, which does not, estimated at $112,829.85. Without the agreement, Ungerleider said, the project could not move forward. The district’s board approved it in September.
Conexus land, and a question about Triview’s boundary
Ordinance 26-2026 accepts five drainage tracts from Conexus LLC, the developer of the Conexus business park on Old Denver Road, which the developer agreed to dedicate in a 2024 agreement with the town. The tracts cover the Dirty Woman Creek and Teachout Creek drainages and drainage south of Woodmen Valley Chapel. The town receives them by special warranty deed, as the agreement provides, although the town code calls for a general warranty deed; the legal memo to the council judged the risk “minimal,” and the town will hold a title insurance policy for $1,106,822, the county assessor’s market value for the parcels. The council approved the ordinance 5-0. Nobody spoke at the public hearing.
The discussion turned on who maintains the land. Tract A, at the south end of the development, lies within Triview Metropolitan District, which will maintain it. Tracts D and E, at the north end, are outside Triview and become the town’s to maintain, the staff presentation said. Ungerleider told the council the two tracts were removed from Triview in 2023 at the request of the town manager at the time, and said the exclusion was not yet verified: Triview’s own map and the county assessor’s records still show them inside the district. The title commitment attached to the ordinance lists an “Order for Exclusion from the Triview Metropolitan District” recorded on December 8, 2023.
King said Triview cannot shrink or enlarge its boundaries without the council’s approval under its intergovernmental agreement with the town, could not recall any such approval, and said maintenance of the land would otherwise fall to the town’s taxpayers. A representative of Conexus said the 2022 preliminary planned unit development and the final plat both designate Tracts D and E to be owned and maintained by the town. Members agreed the ordinance itself says nothing about maintenance. King supported it “with the caveat that we don’t sit around and not do anything about this.” Ungerleider promised a report on the boundary and on who is responsible for maintenance.
Ungerleider also told the council that Tract E adjoins vacant land at the southeast corner of Second Street and Old Denver Road that is for sale, that part of Tract D could be developed, and that the draft comprehensive plan shows mixed-use development with retail there. Because that land is outside Triview, all of the sales tax it produced would go to the town, according to Ungerleider.
Resolution 74-2026 gives Woodmoor Water temporary access across part of Tract E to repair a sewer line whose 1966 easement was never recorded; recording it is a condition of the town’s closing on the land. At staff’s request the council moved the end date from December 31, 2026, to June 30, 2027, because the district will not finish this year. After a council member asked about mouse habitat on the tract, it added a condition that the district receive “appropriate approval from Fish and Wildlife” for any habitat issues. It passed 5-0.
The water report
Jon Rigaud of the town’s water department summarized the town’s 2026 drinking water quality report, which covers testing in 2025 and lists no violations. Lead at the 90th percentile of customer taps measured 0.4 parts per billion against an action level of 15. Answering council members, Rigaud said the town has no lead service lines, that it tests each of its wells and the distribution system separately, and that the town installed a radium removal system after one well, Well 9, pushed a blended supply over the limit. Rigaud said a main that broke on Jefferson Street had been on staff’s list for replacement because of its pipe type, that one or two other areas may have similar pipe, and that the town has bought new leak-detection equipment and monitors pressure across the system.
Five on-call paving contractors
Resolution 76-2026, approved 5-0, sets up one-year master agreements with five concrete and asphalt contractors: SSS Enterprise, KRM Concrete, Greatland, Trax Construction and Concrete Experts. Andrew Archuleta, whom the mayor introduced as the town’s newly named director of public works, said the agreements guarantee no work and that each job will be issued as a task order with a not-to-exceed price. The town has used KRM and Trax before. Without an on-call contract, Archuleta said, the water crew cannot get a contractor out quickly after a main break; with the agreements the crew can call a contractor the night of a break and ask for a 24-hour response. The work draws on $500,000 a year for asphalt and $500,000 for concrete in the capital projects fund and $100,000 from the water fund.
Also on the agenda
The consent agenda passed 5-0. It carried the September 21 minutes and the quarterly investment report, which puts the town’s investment income for January through September at $1.12 million.
Three police officers were sworn in by Police Chief Patrick Regan: Jeremy Valdez and two the agenda lists as Officers Juhl and Sears.
A proclamation, read by LaKind, names November 9 to 13 National Veterans Small Business Week in Monument. Brandon Eldridge, executive director of the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center, spoke for the center. Andy Koen invited residents to the In Their Honor Veterans Day Parade in downtown Colorado Springs at 11 a.m. on November 7.
Public comment. Nobody spoke, in the room or online.
Coming to the October 19 meeting. Silver Key Senior Services, which runs an activity center and a thrift store in Monument, would like to present, staff said. At the town manager’s prompting, members also agreed to take up a resolution supporting the town’s use tax question on the November 3 ballot.
Executive session. The council met in closed session with the town attorney on a water main break and a related claim, and on “the status and new information concerning an outstanding IEC complaint.” On returning, it directed staff to confer with CIRSA, the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency, about the claim and report back. No action was announced on the complaint.
What comes back, and when
- October 13, 6 p.m.: Talk With the Town, at Town Hall. The town manager said it will focus on the budget and town finances.
- October 14, 6 p.m.: the Planning Commission’s continued hearing on the Monument 2040 comprehensive plan and the downtown master plan.
- October 19, 6:30 p.m.: the next regular council meeting, where staff expect a Silver Key presentation and the use tax resolution.
- November 2: the final draft 2027 budget and a second amended 2026 budget, and the council’s vote on both 2040 plans.
- December 7: adoption of the 2027 budget. December 14: a special meeting for the mill levy deadline. The December 21 regular meeting may be canceled.
- Unscheduled: staff’s reports on the Triview boundary at Conexus, the court’s fines and the CIRSA consultation.
- Meetings are at 645 Beacon Lite Road, with remote participation through Microsoft Teams.
Sources & further reading
The Independent’s own coverage: Monument Town Council, September 21, 2026, whose minutes were approved here and which listed the draft budget for this meeting · Monument Town Council, August 17, 2026, which reported the preliminary budget this draft revises · Monument’s 2040 Plan Gets More Time, on the plan vote set for the same night as the final draft budget · Bring Your Questions: Monument’s Council Opens the Floor on October 13.
Town record: Agenda and 468-page packet, Town Council regular meeting, October 5, 2026, containing the September 21 draft minutes, the third-quarter investment report, the proclamation, the water quality presentation, the finance staff’s budget memo, presentation and account detail, the draft 2027–2031 capital improvement plan, Ordinance 26-2026 and Resolution 74-2026 with the legal memo, deed, title exceptions and easement agreement, Resolution 75-2026 with its staff memo and the signed agreement, and Resolution 76-2026 with the bid tabulation and the five master agreements · the signed Ordinance 26-2026, posted to the same page on October 6 · the meeting recording on the town’s YouTube channel, posted October 7 · Agenda, packet and approved minutes, Town Council regular meeting, August 17, 2026.
Entities: Town of Monument · Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District No. 1 · Triview Metropolitan District · Jackson Creek Parkway Widening, the town’s project site · Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center · Silver Key Senior Services · Fountain Creek Watershed District, board roster.
Methodology
This account is based on the town’s agenda and its 468-page agenda packet, read in full before the recording was posted, and on the recording of the meeting, which the town posted to its YouTube channel on October 7. Dollar figures, dates and the terms of each ordinance, resolution and agreement come from the packet. Figures that appear only on image pages, including the budget forecast and the capital plan’s project sheets, were read with text-recognition software and checked against the pages themselves.
The recording’s captions are generated by automatic speech recognition rather than written by a person. Machine transcription misrenders names, garbles figures and carries no speaker labels, so names in this article were checked against the agenda, the packet or the town’s published record, and figures come from the meeting documents wherever the documents carry them. Every quoted passage was transcribed a second time by the Independent with an open-source speech recognition model, and is quoted only where the two transcripts agree. Council members are named only where the Independent’s editor identified the speaker by watching the recording; other remarks are attributed to “a council member” or “another member.” The town displays most votes on screen with a per-member tally; the votes on the consent agenda, Ordinance 26-2026 and Resolutions 74 and 76 are reported from those displays, and the signed Ordinance 26-2026 the town posted on October 6 records the same 5-0. Resolution 75-2026 and the motion to go into executive session were not displayed; those votes are the mayor’s announcements from the dais.
Statements by staff, council members and speakers are attributed to them and have not been independently verified, including the account of how Tracts D and E came to be excluded from Triview, which staff said it had not yet confirmed. The forecast percentages are the town’s own, from its presentation. The draft budget’s figures may change before the final draft is presented on November 2. The Independent has not put questions to the town about the matters described here.
