Public comment is not allowed during City Council Study sessions. Decisions are made by showing thumbs-up or thumbs-down, without taking formal votes.
5-5:15PM Council will discuss allowable signage for marijuana stores.
5:15-6PM Council will discuss how they would fund a new City Hall.
The retired Planning Director/current Special Assistant to the City Manager will recommend that the City incur $59-65 million in debt to build a new City Hall on the spot where they demolished the Coors headquarters building.
The meeting memo says that City Council "indicated support" for the plan during their February 13th study session. Taking approval as a given, the memo goes on to recommend that the City pay for the new building with Certificates of Participation--a form of debt that does not require approval by the citizens.
The memo states that "projects that are for government operations would generally fall under the decision-making umbrella of the elected officials and the use of COPs, while projects for amenities that benefit the general public may be more appropriate for a general election where the public decides if they want the project and are willing to approve the debt to finance it."
A previous memo explained that projects that lack public appeal should not go to the voters, because they might say no.
Public Comments:
On Mondays, the City posts comments sent to Council's original email address, councilcomments@cityofgolden.net. Lon Strong's email provided his set of reasons not to build a new City Hall at this time. It was very thorough, and well thought out. You can read his email here:
Comments sent to Council's newer email address, publiccomment@cityofgolden.net, will be posted inside tonight's meeting packet after 3PM today. You can check this link after 3PM.
Finally, here are a few of the comments that people have sent to me:
- I am disgusted by the attitude that a new City Hall is a done deal.
- I don't think I've read one person in support of the City Hall yet they say it's just happening.
- I'm not necessarily opposed to it but what are we trading off since the City seems to suddenly think they're flush with money....
- Sure seems pointless to have a city council. No such thing as representing the people.
- It would be nice to talk about the city hall with residents. I am still flabbergasted that they made a $65M decision with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down way in a rush because they had another topic to discuss.
- It astounds me the lack of transparency and the continued resistance to have public comment on this matter.
