Home, Home Rule on the Range,
Where the deer and the bureaucrats play,
Where the citizens might
Have initiative rights,
And commissioners must do what they say…
Last April, the voters within the incorporated Town of Pagosa Springs elected to modify their Home Rule Charter, to create a special fee on vacation rentals — a rather substantial fee: $150 per month, per bedroom. 100% of the revenue generated would be used to help fund housing for people earning less than the community’s average household income — that is to say, housing for the segment of our community that’s struggling most to make ends meet, during these unusual economic times.
The Town Planning Commission had recommended just such a fee, a year prior, but the Town Council was unable to agree on how to structure the fee. So a group of individual citizens — myself included — circulated a petition and placed the question in front of the voters in April.
The fee is being challenged in court, but the process that initiated the ballot measure is not being challenged. The process is well established law.
Here in Colorado, the citizens living in any incorporated town or city have the political right to place questions before their fellow voters through a guaranteed ‘initiative’ process. They also have the right to field a ‘referendum’ — whereby the voters can overturn an unpopular law made by the elected municipal leaders.
The Town electors also have the right to change the very structure of their municipal government. They can reduce or increase the number of Town Council members, decide which positions in the government must be elected by the voters, and put limits on the powers of the Council — as they did in 2020, when the voters demanded the right to approve certain Urban Renewal Authority decisions.
But the vast majority of citizens living in Archuleta County — about 85% — live outside the municipal boundaries, in the unincorporated county. Although they may feel like they live “in Pagosa Springs” and although they may feel that we’re all part of one large community, the county residents cannot vote in municipal elections, cannot petition questions onto their ballot, and cannot make changes to the structure of County government.
In particular, perhaps, the voters living outside the town cannot put limits on government spending schemes.
But the Colorado Constitution provides an option. The citizens living in an unincorporated county are guaranteed one particular right: the right to petition to become ‘Home Rule’.
For all its history, the Archuleta County government has been ‘statutory’. Its structure, powers and functions have been defined by the State legislature in Denver.
Here in Colorado, the voters authorized home rule governance for cities and towns — municipalities — back in 1903, when Americans were striving for more democratic control of their own governments. The allowance for county governments to become ‘Home Rule’ came much later, in 1970, through a separate constitutional amendment.
Since then, only two Colorado counties — Weld and Pitkin — have elected to become Home Rule.
From the Weld County Home Rule webpage:
Home Rule gives citizens at the grass-roots level the authority to manage their own government affairs. This is done by the adoption of a Charter, which defines the structure of government. The Charter can be changed by the vote of the citizens. Without Home Rule, the Colorado Legislature determines both the form and function of county government…
Seven and a half months of study and scores of public hearings went into the charter before it was presented to the voters in September 1975. Passage of the charter made Weld County the first county in the state to adopt its own home rule charter. Since then, only one other, Pitkin County, has followed course. Weld County’s Home Rule Charter went into effect on January 1, 1976.
The charter brings government closer to the residents of Weld County and gives them the authority to manage their own affairs. Changes in the charter are permitted by a majority vote of the residents.
You can download the Weld County Home Rule Charter by clicking here.
From the Pitkin County Home Rule Charter:
The County shall exercise and provide all mandatory County powers and functions as provided by law, and shall have all rights and powers now or hereafter delegated under the constitution and laws of the State of Colorado for exercise by counties; in addition, it shall be authorized without amendment to the Charter to provide all functions, services and facilities, and to exercise all prerogatives and powers that may now or hereafter be authorized by the State Constitution and laws…
You can download the Pitkin County Home Rule Charter here.
The two charters are by no means identical, although one important detail is the same. Both charters created a five-member Board of County Commissioners.
Under Colorado law, Archuleta County is allowed only three County Commissioners. I have no idea why this was originally considered a good idea, by the authors of the Colorado Constitution, but it became a serious drawback in 1972, when the Colorado voters established the Open Meetings Law. That law made it impossible for any two County Commissioners to meet legally and discuss public business, without inviting in the press and the public. Archuleta County is limited to three commissioners, so this means that the only time a commissioner can discuss ideas with a fellow commissioner is during an open public meeting.
Speaking as a person intensely interested in better political processes, I find this limitation to be awful. It pretty much eliminates the ability for our County commissioners to ‘brainstorm’ with one another.
Normally, when people are kicking ideas around, some of the ideas sound stupid at first, but later turn out to be rather brilliant, once they are kneaded and worked over through a brainstorming process.
In my experience, only persons with iron-clad egos are willing to risk sounding stupid in a public discussion.
Another problem with a three-person County Commission: it takes only two votes to make a law affecting 14,000 residents.
We know from the Magellan Strategies survey of likely voters conducted in August, that only 4% of the respondents “Strongly Agreed” with the statement, “Archuleta County is fiscally responsible and spends taxpayer money wisely…” Only 27% even “Somewhat” agreed.
As Town Council member Brooks Lindner stated shortly after the survey results were released:
“This is a huge trust issue, and trust is the biggest thing, whenever you have a ballot issue…”
Could we make some headway in fixing this trust issue, by voting to make Archuleta County a Home Rule County? Because, as things are going at the moment, the three commissioners seem to be digging themselves into an even deeper hole.