Denver City Council members struggled Tuesday to balance their desires to pass a $550 million bond and tax- increase proposal against giving voters the impression they were stacking the deck in favor of certain projects.
They settled on a method used to resolve playground disputes for generations: They drew from a hat.
“I do feel like I am at a 10th-grader’s party,” Councilwoman Carol Boigon said as the group passed Councilman Charlie Brown’s Stetson around the table.
The council’s debate was how to order nine questions voters will see on the November ballot. The ordering has been a point of concern with the group since attorneys told them the bond package would have to be split into eight groups of like projects. The ninth question is for a property-tax increase of 2.5 mills.
As political animals themselves, council members know that voters are more likely to approve questions at the top of a list. And attention has focused on a question for a $70 million cultural facilities package to fund renovations at Boettcher Concert Hall and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Council members have worried that voters will reject the cultural facilities question because it is for new facilities rather than maintenance and because without it, the bond package would not raise the tax rate.
“It is conventional wisdom that having them first would give the cultural a boost,” said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, the only council member who voted against the cultural package Monday when the City Council approved putting the questions on the ballot.
The new cultural projects group had been last on the list as the legislation worked its way through the council, but Boigon suggested placing the questions in alphabetical order. That method would have put the cultural project first on the list.
Brown worried that voters would get the impression that the council was manipulating the ballot.
“They are going to perceive this as a political decision,” he said, warning that the strategy could backfire on the cultural projects.
Councilman Chris Nevitt said such decisions are part of the job.
“I don’t want it to appear like we are cheating,” he said, but “I was elected here to make decisions, and I really want you to approve this as a package.”
Alphabetizing the questions was tossed out after confusion over whether the cultural package’s ballot title would be “Cultural Projects; New,” placing it first on the list of bond questions, or “New Cultural Projects,” placing it fifth.
Instead, after the drawing, the cultural projects item landed second to last.
“I don’t want this body to be conceived as being biased,” Brown said. “Why should we go on the defensive the first two or three weeks of this campaign?”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
The ballot order
City Council members drew from a hat Tuesday to decide on the order for the nine questions that make up the $550 million bond and tax-increase package Denver voters will see on the Nov. 6 ballot:
1. Capital maintenance mill levy
2. Health and Human Services facilities
3. Libraries
4. Transportation and Public Works
5. Park system facilities
6. Public office facilities
7. Cultural facilities deferred maintenance
8. Cultural facilities new construction
9. Public safety facilities
