I’ve withdrawn from the semester, so this project is on hold for the time being. (I’m having some challenging health issues and am a bit discouraged, frankly.)
I created a little music video as I reflected on the token “you have three minutes; thank you for your testimony” process. I used my phone and had to stack my own vocals and used a hammer on a piece of wood for the gavel bang sounds. It is actually kinda cool!
Thank you for your interest in this project.
Krystyn Hartman
After sending daily emails to the sponsors of SB24-020 on alcohol takeout and delivery with no response at all, it occurred to me that maybe my emails were going to their spam folders and that they aren’t seeing them, so I sent a letter to the editor of The Denver Post hoping they’d run it and that the bill’s sponsors might then see it. It was a chance worth taking. They published it in today’s print edition Friday, February 9, 2024 with the title Time for state to deliver help to heavy drinkers. And no, I didn’t come up with that, they did. (Their Forum editor CJ is really good.) Hopefully, the bill’s sponsors will see it.
As I wrote in the letter and in the testimony, we can celebrate our state’s successful alcohol industry and enjoy home delivery of it while also acknowledging and addressing the fallout of that success. It is not an unreasonable ask.
Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.
Policy Work Groups Reports are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.
A Denver Business Journal story published February 7 reported that there was no opposition to SB24-020 regarding alcohol takeout and delivery, which is not true. There was opposition and with amendments. I left a message with the reporter about the error and she called back the next day apologizing for the error and we were able to clarify the details. She said they’ll add a correction to the story. She was super nice and we had a good conversation.
Here is link to the story. There is a paywall after one visit though, FYI. (I don’t know if that’s one time forever or one time a month.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2024/02/07/restaurant-alcohol-delivery.html
Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.
Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.
Too many citizens feel our individual voices don’t matter to lawmakers relative to lobbyists and special interest groups. Economically speaking, that has proven true. So, how do we increase the marginal benefit of citizen voices relative to special interest groups, lobbyists and policy monopolies when it comes to lawmakers’ time and priorities on any given day? By taking a policy co-design strategic approach to criminal and juvenile justice issues that increases citizen inputs while respecting the time and attention limits of lawmakers and related influencer bureaucrats. Enter: Citizen Policy Work Groups.
The new Transforming Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission (TCJJ) created by executive order to replace the old Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), which was sunsetted by the Colorado legislature last year, 2023.
I offered public comment, again, this afternoon (February 5) showing a more inclusive stakeholder structure that incorporates affected citizen voices into the TCJJ goals and put together a 1 page (2 sided) policy memo presenting the benefits of co-design strategies in criminal justice related policies. They gave me an extra minute, so that was good!
Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.
Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.
Recent reports on the 60% rise in alcohol deaths that have surpassed drug overdose deaths in Colorado over the same time period as the permitting and expansion of alcohol takeout and delivery initiated by executive order in response to the COVID pandemic lockdown raises affected citizen questions concerning Senate Bill 24-020 to make alcohol takeout and delivery expansion permanent.
The alcohol delivery and takeout program has been a huge success and important boon for restaurants and related businesses who sell alcohol. The pandemic based bill is set to expire in 2025. The proposed bill SB24-020 will make the alcohol delivery and takeout permanent at only $11/year for a permit fees. Last year the state had around 2500 permit applications, according to the fiscal statement attached to the bill, for a total of $26,000 to the state.
However, the rise in alcohol deaths over the same time period could justify the need for a correlation study to make sure there is no connection between the rise in deaths and alcohol delivery and takeout expansion before making it permanent.
I testified suggesting an amendment to raise the annual permit fee from $11 to $111 ($8/month) so that the added $100 can go to addiction healthcare and housing to the tune of $250,000 and the state sill gets to keep the $26,000.
Everyone wins. Alcohol takeout and delivery are made permanent in the law so that industry and their customers benefit while the industry also contributes to the addiction healthcare and housing fallout for those who don’t benefit from their resulting success. The bill passed committee unanimously without amendments and moves to Senate Finance Committee tomorrow, February 6.
Here’s the 1 page (2 sided) citizen policy brief I put together and sent to the bill’s sponsors after testifying to the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee on Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.
Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.
I spent most of my first semester in graduate school in the Master of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado Denver researching and writing about the old and new Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) that culminated in a major term paper Policy Memo assignment (that I got an A on).
The Colorado state legislature chose not to continue the old CCJJ last year, which meant the end, the “sunsetting,” of the old CCJJ. Governor Polis was not happy that the lawmakers ended the CCJJ, so he issued Executive Order 2023-002 to create the new Working Group On Transforming Criminal & Juvenile Justice, which as he explained in a public statement, is to replace the old CCJJ, which he expects the legislature to pass this year. The legislature already chose to end it, so it will be interesting to see if they stand by their original position or give in to the governor, law enforcement and district attorney pressures to pass it.
In the Policy Memo not only was I able to identify the CCJJ as a part of a bigger iron triangle policy monopoly that excluded affected citizens in the decision process, but one of my conclusions is a suggestion that they create affected citizen working subgroups at the table, including a way to do that. In fact, it was that paper that led to the idea for the other class (economics) term paper titled Equitizing Citizen Inputs In Policy Decisions that led to this Citizen Policy Work Group and website idea as a test project.
Because this site and the whole Citizen Policy Work Groups idea is barely a few weeks old, I’m still thinking through the logistics but since the new CCJJ working group has already met and is preparing their strategy for legislative approval in March, I thought I’d at least get my policy memo uploaded here as a starting point from which to add update posts related to the new CCJJ as the legislative session progresses.
Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.
Policy Work Groups posts are an extension of citizen PolicyWorkGroups.com.
Citizen Policy Work Groups 