ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The city of Englewood just sued itself. That is not a typo. The city filed a lawsuit against itself.
Englewood City Council wants to ask residents for more property tax dollars to improve city parks, enhance Pirates Cove and update the Englewood Recreation Center. To get the issue on the ballot, though, Englewood’s city clerk had to sue the city.
“I always say if there’s something quirky, interesting or fun that’s going to happen on the Front Range, it’s probably going to happen in Englewood,” Englewood City Manager Shawn Lewis said.
Quirky and interesting led the city to sue itself because of its city charter. The charter said that general bond ballot issues can be the only question on the ballot.
“Holding off on our issue wasn’t an option," Englewood resident Matt Crabtree said. "We have a right to petition. We have a Constitutional right to do this."
Crabtree is one of five Englewood residents who collected signatures and turned in petitions to get two citizen-initiated questions on the November ballot.
One would have voters directly elect the Englewood mayor. Currently, city council votes among themselves to pick the councilmember that would act as mayor.
Englewood is a weak mayor system. That means the city manager runs the city, and the mayor has little power.
The other ballot issue would require a supermajority of council to fill a council vacancy. If that failed to happen within 30 days and the next general election was more than six months away, a special election would be held.
“It was certainly not the intent, and nor were we aware of that process, of interfering with the city putting a bond on,” Crabtree said.
Crabtree unsuccessfully ran against Othoniel Sierra for council in 2023. City council selected Sierra as mayor.
“Even though Englewood has a weak mayor system, it’s important for the voters to be able to elect the leadership on council because the mayor does have authority," Crabtree said. "The mayor has the authority to select and choose the issues that go on the agenda. They are tiebreakers.”
“I’m not sure why it wasn’t found earlier,” Lewis said of the charter conflict.
Lewis said that the city attorney realized the issue. That led to the city clerk filing a lawsuit against the city to try to get a judge to allow all the bond issues even if the citizen initiatives qualify for the ballot.
“We really felt like the safest course of action was to file this lawsuit to, once and for all, resolve the issue of whether or not we can have a general obligation bond on the ballot as well as other questions,” Lewis said.
On Monday, a judge ruled that the charter provision is unconstitutional based on newer provisions in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights Constitutional amendment.
Though, in 2016, Englewood asked voters for a bond to pay for a new police headquarters, at the same time that the city asked voters a question about a marijuana sales tax. That would have violated the same charter issue that a judge just ruled was unconstitutional.
“We think that we are covered where that will not have to be undone,” Lewis said.
The bond question will ask voters to allow the city to bond $41.5 million.
It will cost homeowners an additional $27.70 each year on $100,000 of a home’s value, meaning, it would cost $55.40 on a $200,000 home and $138.50 on a $500,000 home.
The city would spend $23 million enhancing eight parks, $7.7 million on the Englewood Recreation Center and $6.3 million on Pirates Cove.
“The last time that we had a parks and rec bond was over 20 years ago. We have paid that bond off now and are now going to voters for a larger amount, which I think, takes into consideration inflation and other factors,” Lewis said.
Englewood voters are being asked for more property tax dollars at a time when the state legislature is about to have a special session to reduce property tax increases a little more.
“This is a difficult time in Colorado to be going to voters and asking them to invest in additional improvements in our systems,” Lewis said. “We also, though, want to make sure that that is in the hands of the voters, and if the voters want to do that, then we are ready to implement.”