Commerce City Council Meeting Highlights {Aug. 15th meeting}

Ordinance 1869 for issues to be put on the ballot for this November 1, 2011 election by the Commerce City council was approved with a vote of 7 yes and 1 no, with Natale being the no vote as he says he is strongly opposed to the charter change to make the mayoral position separate from a city council position. This change, if passed by the voters, will allow a person to run for two consecutive terms as a city council person, four years each, and then two consecutive terms as mayor, or vice versa, for a total of 16 years in office. The other issues for the ballot include a 7% excise tax on all marijuana sales (legal and illegal), change of organizational meeting after city council elections, and to remove city council members from the planning commission.

Council once again, for the second week in a row, removed off the agenda, the discussion about issues regarding citizen's communication. The reason given was that Councilman McEldowney is out of town for his job regarding the Verizon strike and would not be able to be part of the discussion. This has been put off since last May, when it was first asked to be put on the agenda.

During citizen's communication, a business owner from Commerce City, who has owned his business here for 20 years, complained that city staff has been delaying with no valid reason, his project to build an addition to his business. Councilman Benson said that staff should see how we can get this done and not delay it. The business owner attempted to have city council view a diagram of his proposed project, which will increase taxes and job opportunities, and Mayor Natale denied his request.