Aspen City Council approves two citizen-led ballot initiatives to appear on March ballot
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Aspen City Council on Tuesday approved two citizen-led ballot initiatives to be placed on the March ballot, but one came with more opposition than the other.
The first ballot initiative, changing the margin of voter approval from 50% plus one to 60% plus one for any changes in use to Aspen’s Open Spaces, unanimously passed, with the language approved by City Attorney Jim True and City Clerk Nicole Henning.
True gave the introductions for the process with both ballot initiatives, and wanted to make some clarifications before city council began consideration.
“These are for charter amendments, and I want to clarify something here,” True said. “Charter amendments are placed on the ballot by the city itself or by petitioners. The clerk was presented with these signatures, and the signatures were certified. Council must now set the ballot title, which is mandatory at this point, and once the clerk has certified that the petitions are sufficient.”
He further said that ballot language must not be confusing and be fairly straightforward, with a yes or no vote.
“There are requirements that it (ballot questions) not be confusing,” True said. “In the past, there have been elections where yes means no, and no means yes, and that is not appropriate.”
City Council member Sam Rose asked about the role city council has in this process with citizen-led petitions.
“I am sure 99% of the time, this is a rubber stamp from city council,” Rose said. “But is there any precedent for rejecting these citizen-led ballot initiatives? I cannot see any objections council would have with something hundreds of citizens have signed.”
True said that there is a little leeway in what the title can say, but council does not have the discretion to not set a title and place this on the ballot.
“I am not aware of any circumstance where council has been faced with kind of charter amendment and which it has rejected the amendment despite the certification by the clerk,” True said. “There are no cases that we could find in the state of Colorado where council has rejected charter amendments.”
The second ballot initiative, which would amend Aspen’s Home Rule Charter by adding a section to the city charter to allow the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to use parts of the Marolt and Thomas properties for Colorado Highway 82 realignment, as identified in the 1998 Entrance to Aspen Record of Decision (ROD), was ultimately passed with a vote of four to one; Bill Guth being the only one to vote no.
Guth brought up a question about City Council member Ward Hauenstein needing to recuse himself from this process for this ballot initiative because Hauenstein helped to draft the second ballot initiative as a private citizen.
In return, the question arose that Guth may have to recuse himself due to an email he had sent prior, asking people not to sign the petition that Hauenstein was involved in.
True said there was no mandated recusal for either council member because there was no substantial personal or financial interest other than the public’s common interest.
Guth brought up a previous letter from Mark Gruskin, who is an attorney who wrote a letter to True, claiming that there was an issue with the second ballot initiative. True said this attorney was incorrect, and there was no issue.
Guth sided with Gruskin.
“(Gruskin) seems to be an extraordinarily accomplished campaign and elections attorney in Colorado,” Guth said. “To make sure we are getting this right, I was to ask the district court for a declaratory judgment about what is appropriate and what is not.”
Guth brought this process up for a motion, but there was no second. True reiterated that Gruskin did not make a case to support the position he stated in the letter, which apparently had to do with the clerk following the certification of this second ballot initiative properly, according to True.
The difference with the second ballot initiative being approved was that the ballot title was amended from what was originally presented by the city attorney and city clerk to include the language in the title that states the Marolt Open Space could be used by any future Preferred Alternative, if an EIS decides any changes are needed to the original route, after the environmental review.
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