Pueblo’s mayor spoke with 100 people in 100 days. Here’s what she said she learned

Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham said Thursday she has spoken with hundreds of Puebloans as part of the “100 days, 100 people” initiative that she launched when she took office in February.

Graham, speaking at a press conference on Thursday at City Hall, said she has met with well over 200 people since she became mayor, many of whom expressed concerns about public safety, housing and homelessness, among other issues.

During her inauguration in February, Graham said she would speak with 100 residents within her first 100 days in office. She reiterated Thursday her desire to let people know that she “has an open-door policy" and welcomes dialogue in the mayor’s office.

“I have invited people who want to be heard about their troubles and things they believe need to be addressed in our city and those who want to share their ideas to make Pueblo better,” Graham said. “Many citizens have shared similar concerns with me, from trash around the city, needing to feel safer within our community, asking for financial assistance to make Pueblo more affordable, along with more personal, unique concerns.”

Graham said she even met and spoke with people who shared they didn’t vote for her during January’s mayoral election but wanted to “know what she’s about and hear her ideas.”

She added that she’s confident the people she has spoken with are a representative sample of Pueblo’s diverse population, as she said she met with a wide variety of individuals of all ages.

That includes a mother and her child, who has cerebral palsy, and a girl scout, both of whom Graham mentioned during her address.

Graham said her office has already made efforts to address concerns some residents brought up during their meetings, such as initiatives to better retain and hire more police officers. She also mentioned the city has embraced the ShotSpotter technology deployed by the Pueblo Police Department.

Mentioning homelessness, she said that she visited pallet shelters in Denver recently and that it’s a concept her office is looking into to potentially offer transitional housing for Pueblo’s unhoused. She acknowledged that it’s “very hard to get into housing.”

“If we’re going to make a true dent in the homeless issues that we have in Pueblo, we really have to start at the root cause,” Graham said. “We know it’s very difficult for these individuals to get sober and be able to be in a place where they feel safe with four walls. So that’s really something my administration is looking at, and not reinventing the wheel, but seeing what other communities are doing to combat the unhoused issues they have.”

Graham also mentioned that some people she has met signed up to speak with her a second time, while several have seen her three or four times.

Graham touts other efforts during her tenure so far

During part of the press conference, Graham touted other decisions her office has made, such as shutting down the Rodeway Inn and Val U Stay Inn and Suites of Pueblo, further expanding and developing relationships with nonprofits and fostering those she has with city councilors.

She said she meets weekly with Pueblo City Council President Mark Aliff and often holds one-on-one meetings with other counselors. Graham had been critical of the relationship between the mayor’s office and city council during her time as council president and sought to improve it as became mayor.

Some other developments that Graham mentioned have occurred since she took office include the planned four-story hotel on Elizabeth Street, secured funding for the expansion project at the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk and a partnership with the Pueblo Arts Alliance. The latter allows local artists to display their artwork in Graham’s office as a way to showcase it.

'What is the harm?': Graham addresses needle exchange ban

Graham also shared some of her first comments about city council’s controversial decision to ban needle exchange programs from operating within the city.

She mentioned that Pueblo has seen the programs exist for so long and has seen no “significant decrease in needles that are out on the street.” Because of that, she opined “What is the harm?” in trying to see if a new approach would work.

“I’m completely a person who makes decisions based off facts and data, so I’d be curious to see, if this needle exchange ban stays in place, we see less needles on the street and less overdoses,” Graham said. “If not, we’re going to have to look at a different way of doing things, but I don’t think that it hurts to try a different way because what we’ve been doing thus far is not necessarily working.”

A group of Pueblo citizens filed a referendum with the city and are seeking enough signatures to put the needle exchange ban to a vote among registered voters in Pueblo.

Graham mentioned that during her campaign, she suggested that needles from the sites could be color-coded to determine if those found on streets and alleyways are actually coming from Access Point Pueblo and the Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association, the two locations that operated the programs. She acknowledged, however, that council wanted to “jumpstart that and ban them altogether.”

Graham also said that she doesn’t believe banning the programs will increase the spread of HIV or the risk of overdose deaths but hopes city council will address it if it does happen.

Decades of studies have shown that syringe access programs can reduce the prevalence of HIV and the risk of drug overdose deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Initiative was statement that mayor’s office will take appointments

Graham in February said the 100-day threshold was a benchmark to see how the initiative went, but also to let people know that her office will take appointments from citizens during her term. She mentioned that her office was nearing 300 people who had signed up to meet with her.

“I think that it’s been a very proactive approach,” Graham said. “I don’t necessarily think that people knew that you could just sign up or walk into City Hall and see the mayor. And now, people do that.”

More community news: Historic Arkansas Riverwalk set to break ground on channel extension, boathouse projects

Chieftain reporter Josué Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: What Pueblo Mayor Graham learned by speaking with 100 people in 100 days