City Council approves questions for voters

By Cassie Tomlin (contact)

Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 | 4:33 p.m.

Voters in June will likely determine whether to allow geothermal power generation in the Eldorado Valley and will be asked to vote on at least four other measures.

The City Council Nov. 25 approved four questions for the June municipal election and asked the Charter Commission to weigh in on a possible fifth. City Attorney Dave Olsen will draft the questions.

The city currently encourages solar power plants to be established in the Eldorado Valley Energy Zone and will ask voters if it should try to draw other renewable energy sources as well.

Geothermal plants use heat stored in the ground to create power and would visually fit in the valley better than wind power, Councilman Travis Chandler said.

The measure passed unanimously.

Voters will also see a question the council had deleted from the November ballot because of confusion: whether advisory questions should be considered only during general elections.

Voter-approved advisory questions do not bind the city to any action.

Olsen will research and redraft the question for clarity. The council voted 3-2 to include the question, with Chandler and Councilwoman Linda Strickland voting no.

The council unanimously agreed to have the Charter Commission study a section that deals with council members' authority over city employees.

Strickland in September was the subject of a criminal complaint filed by city employee Roy Thiess, who claimed she had ordered him to make a copy of a tape for the City Council meeting. He alleged she violated article 2 section 11 of the charter, titled "Council Not to Interfere in Appointments or Removals." The attorney general's office decided there was not enough evidence to bring charges.

Strickland said the title of the section pertains only to the hiring and firing of employees, though members of the Charter Commission in recent council meetings have argued otherwise.

The council also unanimously approved putting two ballot questions that passed in the Nov. 4 election on the ballot again in the spring. They approve changes to the City Charter and need to pass through two elections to be enacted.

The questions will ask whether to make the charter gender neutral and whether meetings to discuss the dismissal of a public official should be public, to comply with state law.

The council turned down two other questions Strickland had proposed: whether to close Boulder Creek Golf Club, and whether the city attorney position should be elected instead of appointed.

The questions both failed by a 3-2 vote. Strickland and Chandler voted yes.

Mayor Roger Tobler said electing the city attorney would only make the position more political, and he opposed closing the golf course because of the city's contract with Hawthorn Suites, which plans to build a hotel there.

"As a council person, people expect you to make the tough decisions," he said. "I don't think everything has to go to a vote."

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.