City Notes

Articles/Interviews on Mayor’s race

• Englewood Herald/Littleton Independent interview of myself and CM Rita Russell on the upcoming race

• Candidate bios for all 3 Englewood City Council Races

Budget, Public Safety, and Environmental Sustainability Updates

Budget

• I am in favor of the current approach of being conservative with future year revenue growth and expected expenses.  

• Financially, the City is in a strong position with 15% of revenue in unrestricted reserves or a total of $10.8M

• Like other areas of the metro area, we are experiencing a slowdown in consumer spending, impacting sales tax revenue with growth expected to slow to a little over 2% for 2026.

• Unlike other cities, we haven’t had to resort to layoffs or furloughs in the current year or for 2026.  

• Even with a slowdown, we are still able to keep funding whole for street maintenance and raising our investment in traffic calming infrastructure.

• For more on the proposed budget for 2026, here is the presentation from the Sept 15th Public Hearing.

Public Safety

• I’ve already covered infrastructure upgrades to improve multimodal safety as part of this year’s budget.

• We have budgeted for 84 sworn officers as part of the budget, with 81 positions currently filled.

• Funding towards public safety is increasing due to our co-responder program, formerly under All Health and Arapahoe County, shifting under our Police Department.  

• We are also partnering with Englewood Schools to add a 2nd SRO in our schools, with a portion also covered by All Souls School.

Environmental Sustainability

• Major project for 2026 is the Municipal Energy Project, upgrading HVAC, upgrading LED Lighting, installing solar panels, building envelope upgrades, etc. across 10 city owned properties, including the Rec Center, Malley, and Broken Tee Golf Course.

  • This was passed by Council in Sept 2025 by a 4-3 vote (Voting in favor - Sierra, Prange, Anderson, and Nunnenkamp)

  • Here’s additional information on the project.  The meat of the project was discussed in 2024 so I’m linking to the presentation given at that time. Scope was refined after this presentation, with finances dominating the conversation leading up to passage in August 2025.

• Other areas of focus is additional research on feasibility of the South Metro Waste Diversion Plan.

  • Presentation can be found here and was passed by Council in Sept 2025 by a 4-3 vote (Voting in favor - Sierra, Ward, Anderson, and Nunnenkamp).

Other areas of note with updates:

Infrastructure

• Since the floods that hit Englewood in July 2018, our focus has been to put together a master plan to improve our water, stormwater, and street infrastructure. The links will take you to an overview of the project but scroll down for updated status of the projects.

  • Improving Englewood’s Drinking Water

    • https://www.engaged.englewoodco.gov/city-ditch-piping-project

  • Stormwater Infrastructure

    • https://www.engaged.englewoodco.gov/south-englewood-flood-reduction-project

Environmental Sustainability

• Originally ran for council in 2018 to be the deciding vote to approve the Biogas Project at South Platte Renew, I’m continually looking at ways to bring a more sustainable Englewood to our citizens.

  • The Biogas Project captures the methane that is a byproduct of waste treatment and, instead of flaring it into the atmosphere, we turn it into a biogas, selling for additional revenue.

    • South Platte Renew’s Gas Recovery and Pipeline Injection Project - Municipal Water Leader Magazine

• Updated: The project was completely paid off in 5.5 years this August, 2 years ahead of schedule.

  • Link on the announcement can be found here.

For any questions, please email me at sierraforenglewood@gmail.com.