Boulder – Boulder residents will not decide whether noncitizens can serve on boards and commissions because a City Council proposal to put it on the November ballot fell one vote short Tuesday night.
The measure needed a two-thirds majority of the eight council members at the meeting, but Deputy Mayor Suzy Ageton and councilmen Shaun McGrath and Jack Stoakes voted against it.
Ageton and McGrath said before voting that they supported the intent of the measure – to make city government more inclusive and diverse – but believed the measure would prove divisive, especially if it failed, while doing little to bring noncitizens into city government.
“There is no guarantee that even if it passes (noncitizens) will be appointed to boards and commissions,” McGrath said, citing the city’s nominating and screening process. He noted the city already has an immigrant advisory board to the city manager’s office.
Ageton said a lengthy ballot this fall and little public education on the proposal would likely doom it to failure. She pledged to reconsider the issue when more discussion has taken place.
A similar proposal in San Francisco failed by a 2-1 margin in 2002.
Had the measure been placed on the ballot and passed in Boulder, only legal residents who are at least 18 years old and have lived in the city for more than a year would have been eligible to serve. Their service would have been limited to advisory boards, and not those that render semi-judicial decisions, such as zoning boards, the city liquor licensing authority or its Human Relations Commission.
Councilwoman Robin Bohannan, who first proposed adding noncitizens to city boards last month, proposed expanding that to allow immigrants to serve on the city Human Relations Commission, which rules on issues such as fair housing and job discrimination and makes decisions that carry the weight of law. That amendment failed 6-2, with Councilwoman Crystal Gray voting with Bohannan.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
