Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, who spent much of his first month in office in a tug-of-war between business and labor interests, today will announce creation of a business advisory council.
Co-chairs of the group are Rick Sapkin, chairman of the business lobbying group Colorado Concern, and Pat Vincent, president of Xcel Energy’s Colorado operations.
“It’s an idea the governor came up with during the campaign – to create a relatively small working group that could advise him on business and economic development policies and strategy,” said Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer.
The group has no union representation, but Dreyer said the governor is putting together a separate labor advisory group.
“Events that have transpired show we are going to have the need to be advised by leaders of various communities of interest,” Dreyer said.
Ritter vetoed a union-backed bill this month that would have made changes to the Labor Peace Act. Although Ritter said during his campaign that he would support an effort to eliminate one of the two votes now needed to negotiate for all-union shops, he said he killed the bill because of the process and overheated politics surrounding its passage.
Dreyer said the business advisory panel has held one meeting, in early February, and that the controversial House Bill 1072 was discussed.
In response to HB 1072’s veto, House Speaker Andrew Romanoff has created a labor-business council to advise the legislature.
Romanoff’s panel is co-chaired by Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., and Mitch Ackerman, president of the Colorado Council of the Service Employees International Union.
Romanoff said he expects to appoint about 10 more members this week.
“I think nobody knows what it will lead to. But dialogue never hurts,” Ackerman said of the Romanoff panel. “Particularly around the health care crisis, I think there is a lot of urgency on the part of both the business community and the representatives of working families in this state that we need to figure out real solutions.”
In addition to Sapkin and Vincent, Ritter’s business advisory council includes Rob Cohen, who heads the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce; Walter Isenberg, president and chief executive of Sage Hospitality; Reeves Brown, president of the Western Slope’s Club 20; former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb; and Bill Hybl, chairman and chief executive of the El Pomar Foundation.
Capitol bureau chief Jeri Clausing can be reached at 303-954-1555 or jclausing@denverpost.com.
