With all of the important local issues facing Commerce City – crime, infrastructure, housing, economic development, and, yes, air quality – one would think that our City Council members would have their hands full dealing with these issues. Sometimes that may include a trip to the State Capitol to advocate for the city on important issues like local control, transportation, and so forth.

Back on Feb. 13, two Commerce City Council members, Kristi Douglas and Renee Chacon, showed up (Douglas in person, Chacon online) before the House Energy and Environment Committee – to oppose a bipartisan bill including nuclear as a clean energy source.

If Council members Douglas and Chacon hate nuclear energy enough to take the time to testify against it, more power to them. That’s what democracy is for.  But they should make very clear that if they do so, they are doing so as private citizens, NOT as official representatives of the City.

Improved transparency and efficiency in local government are among those things that we can all agree on, right? Not so fast…

Among other issues at the City, the increasingly insufferable lengths that some council meetings go to is, quite frankly, absurd. Hours-long sessions featuring public comment phases that reduce the proceedings to redundant and tedious political theater, are not what most people would consider conducive to the effective workings of good government, especially when several of the most time-consuming items on the agenda are slipped in last minute on the agreement of only two council members.

During the December 16th Council hearing, a resolution was brought up to approve an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the City of Commerce City and South Adams County Water and Sanitation District (SACWSD) for water infrastructure improvements along 96th Avenue. Now objectively, this IGA would be to the great benefit of all parties, and to the city as a whole; basically, it allows for new water and sewer lines, needed to service the planned new development east of Tower Road, to be installed during the widening of 96th Ave. when the road will already be under construction. The alternative is to come along later, after the road is finished, and tear it back up to install those lines, at a much greater cost, and potentially causing problems with the brand-spanking new road. So, the IGA would seem like a win-win on the merits. 

Here is how Mayor Pro tem Susan Noble considered the issue:

“The resolution says that South Adams Water has appropriated the funds but they may be coming from rate payers since that is their source of revenue. And I would just like to take a moment to point out that on October 2nd the city council voted unanimously to support South Adams County Water and Sanitation District's ballot measure that would enable them to apply for state grants. That was the understanding we were given. We were also told that there would not be a rate increase. The rate increase was announced this past week of 7.5% to all rate payers in South Adams County Water and Sanitation District. To say I am disappointed that that has occurred when we asked specifically is an understatement, and I on that basis will be voting no on this resolution.”