With its population of more than 100,000, the city of Centennial made history six years ago when it became the largest city in the U.S. ever to incorporate. It billed itself then as a “virtual city,” focusing on keeping taxes low by contracting out most services instead of hiring its own staff.
Since then, according to Mayor Randy Pye, “We’ve been seeing a demand for more services and more responsiveness from government.” The addition of new residents is driving part of the demand, he believes, with more people wanting more city-like services and an emphasis on such things never considered before, including arts and culture.
That change in residents’ demands has led the city council to consider a big step: becoming what is called a “home rule” city.
Since its founding, Centennial has been a “statutory city.” That means it operates under requirements set forth in the Colorado Constitution. In contrast, most of the larger cities in Colorado – 91 at this time – operate under home-rule charters. Charters are similar to a constitution for a state, except that they are drafted by local citizens who are elected to a charter commission. The charter commission’s draft must then be approved by local voters.
Typically, home rule gives a city or town more flexibility and ability to meet local concerns than statutory status. Home-rule municipalities can set their own election and personnel rules, for example.
In the words of Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, home rule gives communities “maximum flexibility to control their own destiny.”
One significant advantage of home rule is that it allows cities to collect sales taxes every 30 days. Currently, sales taxes in statutory cities and towns are collected by the State Department of Revenue, and the cities and towns must wait up to 45 days from the end of the collecting month to receive them. That delay is significant for municipalities in Colorado, which survive primarily on sales taxes.
Sherry Patten, communications director for Centennial, says another advantage of home rule is that it allows cities to find businesses outside the city limits that should be collecting taxes based on the destination of the goods. It’s likely that Centennial is losing sales taxes, she says, to the neighboring cities of Greenwood Village and Englewood, which share Centennial’s ZIP codes.
Seeing the advantages of home rule, the Centennial City Council has voted unanimously to ask voters to approve a charter commission in November. Up to 21 citizens will run in that election. Those elected to the commission will draft a new charter that will then face approval or rejection by Centennial voters.
In a parallel process, Centennial is beginning a visioning process. Ward meetings, phone polls, an interactive website and other outreach activities will ask residents for their vision of the city in 2030. Their vision, to be available in late April, is expected to help guide the work of the charter commission.
Pye says there has been no controversy about the visioning process or the charter commission – so far. He anticipates that Centennial will remain a “virtual” city under home rule. (He prefers the term “contract city,” referring to cities that don’t employ staff, but instead contract out work such as planning, street maintenance and even law enforcement to private companies or other governmental agencies.)
His only concern, he says, is how to pay for the election that will be required to approve or disapprove the charter drafted by the charter commission. The costs of that election may run as high as $100,000, while another $15,000 will be needed for legal assistance in writing the new charter.
Of course it is possible that come November, the citizens of Centennial will vote to forgo local control, maintain the status quo and continue under the limitations and restrictions of a statutory city.
But given all the advantage of home- rule status, they might want to consider the verdict of voters in Johnstown, Timnath, Silt, Kiowa and Parachute. In just the last 18 months, voters in those communities have approved home- rule charters.
Let’s wish Centennial well as it moves forward with its visioning process and charter election. One of the largest cities in the state should have as much flexibility to meet local needs as possible.
