| 08/24/2007 |
| Voters to be asked payroll question in November |
| By Peter Jones , Staff Writer |
Centennial's November ballot became a little longer Aug.
20 when the city council voted to send a citizens' initiative aimed
largely at labor unions to Centennial voters.
The fate of the measure will be decided in a mail-in ballot that also will elect six city officials and determine whether Centennial should create a home-rule charter. The procedural move by the council was the result of a recent petition drive led by former state Senate President John Andrews, a Centennial Republican. The drive, which had generated signatures from about 3,400 registered Centennial voters, is part of a statewide movement to prevent local governments from collecting union dues via payroll. Englewood has also referred the petitioned payroll question to voters. Centennial is not unionized as an employer, but Mayor Randy Pye said the proposed ordinance's language is somewhat troubling, nonetheless. "This ballot question causes the city a number of problems, the way it's written," he said. "We don't have a 'human relations division' quote-unquote. [The ordinance is] talking about deductions 'established by law.' Many of the deductions that we have ... are recognized by the Internal Revenue Service, but they're not established by law." Under Colorado statute, a municipality has only two choices when such petition drives obtain enough valid signatures. A city can either approve the ordinance with no changes or refer the question to voters, though it can amend the ordinance later. The council opted for the latter option after some wrangling over whether to reject the measure outright before placing the ordinance on the ballot. Consensus was reached that the electorate should make the final call on a citizens' initiative, but some council members felt that the measure warranted explicit rejection by council. "This is not something we came up with after studying this with staff," Ward 1 council member Vorry Moon said, contrasting the proposal with city-initiated ordinances that are crafted during the council's lengthy study sessions. "The really small number of people who have signed the petition doesn't, in my mind, obligate me to endorse this, so I say let it go to the ballot, period." Ward 3 council member Rebecca McClellan made a motion to officially reject the ordinance and refer the matter to the voters. Ward 1's Rick Dindinger offered a counter-motion to refer the question without actually rejecting the citizens' initiative. "I applaud the efforts of the petitioners," he explained. "I applaud any citizen who is so active in bringing things to the attention of our city. I wonder whether [limiting payroll deductions] is micromanaging to a degree, but in any event, I don't have any qualms with sending it to the ballot, and I'd rather go that route than have council vote on it." The procedural disagreements were philosophical, as both motions would have placed the ordinance on November's ballot. No council members expressed overt support for the measure, though Ward 2's Sue Bosier, a Republican Party activist, suggested unsuccessfully that Andrews be permitted to speak. Such advocacy is not usually allowed during an ordinance's first reading. After the meeting, Andrews, who last year spearheaded a statewide effort to limit the terms of Colorado judges, explained his justification for the new campaign. "The objective is we take government out of the awkward role of being a collection agency for any political organization," he said. "It is not about precluding the unionizing of this employer. It is a good government effort to get the city of Centennial out of the middle between and political organization and the individual member." The council will finalize its decision to place the ordinance on the ballot Sept. 5 with a second-reading vote. Contact Peter Jones at 303-566-4109 or pjones@ccnewspapers.com. |
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