Opinion: City Council goals – the good, the bad, and the ugly
The Boulder City Council will hold their goal-setting session next weekend. But any progress they might make could be derailed by some ideas that are circulating. Reports are that as many as five council members would like to remove the earmarking from the Open Space tax, meaning that instead of the funds being dedicated to Open Space, they could be used for anything. This would effectively gut the Open Space program. Fortunately, it also would require a charter amendment and thus a vote in November. I expect a bitter campaign battle. I rate this “ugly” — it should never be brought up. Apparently, some council members would like the voters to re-consider direct election of the mayor and district elections of council members, even though this scheme was defeated 2 to 1 in the 2003 election. A directly elected mayor doesn`t work very well with an appointed city manager; either there is a power struggle, or they ignore the rest of the council. Mayoral elections will devolve into who...