Northglenn Thornton Sentinel 021022

Page 1

$1.00

Week of February 10, 2022

ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

Northglenn-ThorntonSentinel.com

VOLUME 58 | ISSUE 27

CELEBRATING COLLEGE CHOICE

Municipal league to provide amicus brief for term limits case BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The Colorado Municipal League will offer a legal opinion on a Thornton lawsuit regarding term limits, the sitting mayor and City Councilors. Thornton’s Mayor Pro Tem Jessica Sandgren, who is also the Secretary-Treasurer of the Colorado Municipal League, told her council colleagues during a Feb. 1 planning meeting that the league voted unanimously to provide an amicus brief regarding Thornton’s appeal in their term limits case. An amicus brief is meant to assist a judge in the decision of a case, said Kevin Bommer, executive director of the municipal league. It is to inform the judicial process with perspectives and often cites prior case law. It also, he said, advocates for an outcome. “If the Court of Appeals was to be making a decision interpreting constitutional language related to, for the first time ever, the impact of the Constitutional language on municipal term limits, then it’s one of the potential bread and butter issues for the league to weigh in as to what the impacts would be on,” he said. The suit argues that it was illegal for Thornton’s Mayor Jan Kulmann to seek reelection, and the city argued council positions and the mayor position are different. However, the court ruled they are not. “The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, indicating that the court SEE TERM LIMITS, P4

Family and friends take pictures as Riverdale Ridge High School Senior Molly Lancaster is surrounded by friends and teammates Feb. 3 in the school’s gymnasium. Lancaster, who will be attending Fort Hayes State University in Kansas, was among eight PHOTO BY SCOTT TAYLOR fellow students who signed letters of intent. See more on page 18.

Colorado needs federal help to expand voter registration BY MEGAN VERLEE COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

Colorado’s automatic voter registration policy was intended to capture as many unregistered voters as possible. But nearly two years on, there’s a hole in that plan: The federal government has still not cleared the way for the state to enroll Medicaid users. Here’s how the system currently works: when someone goes to the DMV and presents an ID that confirms they’re eligible to vote, their information is sent to the Secretary of State’s office. If they’re not already registered, the system signs them up, and then sends out a letter letting them know how to decline or affiliate with a political party. The lawmakers who created the program wanted to include Medicaid recipients in the same process, in order to ensure the state is also

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 15 | SPORTS: PAGE 18

automatically registering people with low incomes that might not have vehicles. But making that happen requires buy-in from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And so far that office hasn’t approved Colorado (or any state) to use their information to automatically register voters. On Feb. 1, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet sent a letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure urging her to permit Colorado and other states to extend their AVR programs into Medicaid offices. The state’s Medicaid program, known as Health First Colorado, “serves more than 1.4 million low-income Coloradans who are disproportionately people of color with poorer health outcomes than the general population,” the letter notes. “The same population faces several challenges to voting and

civic engagement, including lower rates of voter registration.” Bennet is urging the CMS to make changes that clear the way for Colorado’s program. He also noted President Joe Biden’s executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to expand opportunities for voter registration. Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the goal is to reach potential voters, “regardless of their zip code, regardless of the amount of money in their bank account, regardless if they have a car. None of those things disqualify you from voting, so we need to really try to deliver services in an accessible way.” Griswold said she’s hopeful Brooks-LaSure will take the steps needed to allow Colorado’s program to take effect. SEE REGISTRATION, P7

PARTNERS IN WORK & LIFE

For couples, shared business is life P12


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.