Northglenn Thornton Sentinel 021722

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Week of February 17, 2022

ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

Northglenn-ThorntonSentinel.com

VOLUME 58 | ISSUE 28

Uplands foes miss referendum deadline

IN-N-OUT OF THORNTON

BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Uplands foes missed the deadline to submit signatures for a referendum to take the development to the voters. According to Andy Le, a spokesperson for the city of Westminster, the City Clerk’s office did not receive any signatures from Citizens for Open Space, the group collecting names for the move. Their deadline was Feb. 9 and they needed 8,049 valid signatures from Westminster residents, said Karen Ray. “It is with a heavy heart that we are reporting the referendum to reverse the Westminster City Council decision on Uplands was unable to reach the 8050-signature goal in 30 days,” said Karen Ray in an email to Save the Farm supporters. Ray contrasted Westminster with the state of Colorado regarding referendums. “The ‘home ruled’ City of Westminster has a much higher bar for referendum than the State of Colorado does for success in referendum. The city requirement is 10% of all registered voters must be collected in 30-days. This in contrast to the state, which requires 5% of those voting in the last election in 90 days,” she said. She also said that there is a lower signature requirement and longer time period to gather signatures to recall a city council member than it is to achieve a referendum. “Westminster is a home-rule municipality, and our home rule Charter provides for the manner of exercising referendum powers as to our municipal legislation,” Le said. SEE UPLANDS, P4

Luis Garcia and Valeria Palma said they made the trip down from Loveland Feb. 10 just to visit Thornton’s new In-N-Out Burger. Garcia said the pair love the food and were willing to wait up to three hours for their order. That wasn’t necessary Feb. 10 as the PHOTO BY SCOTT TAYLOR lines were moving briskly. See more on page 5.

Phillips voted off council due to a vacancy BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Thornton’s city council voted 5-4 declaring a vacancy on the dias due to former City Councilor Jacque Phillips’ purchase of a home in Alamosa and starting a second job there. According to Todd Barnes, spokesperson for the City of Thornton, the largely split council will vote to appoint a new member after taking applications and conducting Phillips interviews, with a deadline of 30 days. Prior to the vote, public comment for the meeting lasted over two hours with the majority of residents from all wards voicing their support for Phillips. City Councilor Kathy Henson made

INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 9 | VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | SPORTS: PAGE 14

a motion to delay the vote due to the late hour and new evidence brought forth during the meeting, but it failed 5-4 “Given the late hour and having evidence just presented tonight, that we take no action on this evening and postpone the vote until we’ve had a chance to look at everything that has been submitted on the record that was just added this evening,” she said. “This process has been hasty and ill-defined.” Marvin said that those voting to declare a vacancy are taking representation away from Ward 1 and that the decision should go back to voters by a recall if they have an issue. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said. “I’m very sad for Ward 1. This is wrong, it was a political move with the only goal being to further entrench the majority on council,” said

Phillips. Phillips was under fire from some councilors for purchasing a house in Alamosa, where she works as executive director for the San Luis Vally’s Board of Cooperative Education Services, an Alamosa-based group of 14 southern Colorado school districts. Mayor Pro Tem Jessica Sandgren said that she believes the charter outlines what the council is to do when there is a vacancy. Though, during the Feb. 1 planning session meeting, Geoff Wilson special counsel on the issue, said that isn’t true. “(The charter) doesn’t mandate that (council receives competent evidence)” he said. “It doesn’t say council shall hold a hearing but it says that the fact of a vacancy if you’re going to pursue that, shall be established competent evidence.” SEE COUNCIL, P3

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Finding readers key strategy for bookstores P12


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