ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For many weeks now, the City of Englewood has been spreading the word about an upcoming bond proposal that would increase property taxes to pay for park improvements if approved by voters.
"We know we have a need with aging infrastructure we needed to address in the very near future to ensure that our facilities and parks are relevant and they're sustainable and they can stay running for the public," Englewood Parks Director Christina Underhill told Denver7 in July prior to council approval for the measure to be on the ballot.
The question was eventually approved to appear on the November ballot, then the city realized two unrelated citizen-led measures had gathered enough signatures to also appear on the ballot. Both propose changes to the city charter.
One, if passed by voters, would allow Englewood voters the right to directly elect the mayor.
The other would create new rules on how to fill vacant city council seats.
"We found ourselves in a bit of a conundrum," said Englewood city manager Shawn Lewis.
Lewis said it comes down to a line in the city's charter that requires bond questions like the Parks and Recreation proposal to appear to voters in a ballot separate from all other elections.
"Our city charter and state law had a conflict. Specifically, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)," said Lewis.
TABOR requires those types of bond questions to specifically appear in November elections. The city's charter also notes that if the city is asking for that type of bond, it can only appear as the only question on the ballot.
"We would have had to kick off our own city initiated Parks and Recreation Bond because, really, the citizen process rules," said Lewis.
Typically, it would take a vote of the people to change the city's charter, but Englewood found another option.
"We like to say here in Englewood, 'If it's quirky or fun, it probably happens in Englewood.' So we did have to sue ourselves in order to expedite making sure that both of these items could be on the ballot," Lewis said.
The city sued itself, asking an Arapahoe District judge to rule on the city's own ballot rules. A judge found the charter is unconstitutional under TABOR and therefore unenforceable.
Now, all three measure will be on the ballot as soon as the city clerk finishes verifying the citizen petition signatures.
"We think it's a real win, even though it was a bit of a strange and quirky way to get this accomplished," said Lewis.
Some voters reached out to Denver7 concerned that while it typically takes longer to change the city charter, in this instance the city was able to use resources to quickly do so with the judge's ruling.
"We really respect the rights of our citizens to bring forth changes through the referendum process, through the petition process, and really to fight for their rights to do that. We wanted to seek this declaratory judgment to ensure that their items could be on the ballot at the same time that our Parks and Recreation Bond," said Lewis.
The current line of the charter found unconstitutional by a judge is null and void, however, there will need to be city action in the future to get it permanently removed from the charter.
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