The 2025 Mayors’ Summit was held Jan. 22 to coincide with the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo. Cortez Mayor Rachel Medina attended.
Medina said that the summit is an annual event and was 1½ days long.
The roughly 50 mayors from across the state had a daylong workshop and attended the rodeo in that window, which Medina said was a lot of fun.
“It was also a good reminder of how blessed we are in our community, and how well things are going here,” Medina said.
A major takeaway, she said, concerned strategic plans.
Essentially, a strategic plan would lay out how Cortez can meet its priorities the next few years in a detailed, pointed kind of way.
“That’s a goal of hopefully our council or future councils,” Medina said. “It’s a vision for our community.”
As it stands, the Cortez City Council has an annual retreat where they set priorities, goals and outlines action items and projects to make it all happen. A strategic plan would not only “formalize that process,” it would foster transparency and offer a clear, set path in moving forward.
For example, Medina said, if affordable housing is important, what does that mean? What does the city need to do to support such an initiative?
Medina also said that Golden, 30 minutes west of Denver, does an annual state of the city address. It’s a summary of the year, presented by the mayor and city manager.
“They present everything they’ve done in the past year and reflect on their strategic plan,” she said. “And the city manager gets into the nitty-gritty details.”
Medina said she’d like to do something similar in Cortez.
This month, when she attends a legislative workshop, Medina plans to invite our state legislators to present to Cortez’s city council annually, “so they can build a relationship with council and not just with their party.”
Plus, such a visit would allow our representatives to “hear our plans” and give the community a chance to “share their concerns,” said Medina.
And that’s important, since Cortez is “the farthest town from Denver in the state.”
The Mayors’ Summit is put on by the Colorado Municipal League. That group has been around for over 100 years and gives municipalities a voice, as they’re able to oppose, amend or take a neutral stance on state laws.
“We have a lot of influence in the governor’s office,” said Medina.
Medina is a member on that board, and made plans with Councilors Bill Lewis and Matt Keefauver at their latest council meeting to attend the Municipal League’s annual conference in Breckenridge in June.
