Douglas County voters will be tasked in the Nov. 3 election with deciding whether to add two people to the Board of County Commissioners, and they’ll choose how they should be selected for the county’s top elected posts.
If passed, the measure would put Douglas County, with a population of 400,000, in the same category as other populous Colorado counties that have expanded their commissioner boards from three to five members, including Arapahoe, Weld, El Paso and Adams. Boulder County is also asking voters in the fall election if they want to expand the commissioner board there.
What is typically a two-question affair has been complicated in Douglas County by last-minute alterations made by the three commissioners who currently oversee county government.
The Republican commissioners added language to the chief expansion question, which was petitioned onto the ballot as an initiative backed by an outside group called Stop the Power Grab. The added wording spells out the county’s estimated costs for having two additional commissioners at the top of Douglas County government.
The board also added a third question to the ballot asking if county commissioners should be elected at-large.
Challenges mounted against the commissioners’ moves last month were unsuccessful, both at the county level and in district court.
If voters approve the board’s expansion, the first election to install five commissioners would occur in 2028.
What would Ballot Question 200 do?
This question simply asks voters if they want to increase board membership from three to five commissioners. There is also language in the measure about the potential fiscal impact of a board expansion (see more on that below).
What would Ballot Question 201 do?
If voters approve the initial expansion question, this question asks how to go about doing it.
Question 201 asks voters if they want the five commissioners to be elected “only by the voters resident in the district” the candidate would represent, or by a split arrangement of three commissioners elected by district and the other two elected at-large.
What would Ballot Question 1A do?
1A is a last-minute question the three current commissioners added to the ballot. It asks whether voters would like all five commissioners to be elected by a vote of the entire Douglas County electorate. If both 1A and 201 pass, they’d be at odds, potentially leading to a dispute in court over whether the election method that receives more votes should prevail.
What would expansion cost?
The county has estimated that the cost of expansion could run from $760,000 to $1.3 million annually.
But residents who to get the measure on the ballot question the commissioners’ estimates. They say putting a cost analysis in the ballot measure is improper and designed to confuse voters.
Those backers see a cost closer to $500,000 a year as more realistic, counting up the salaries and benefits for two new commissioners. Any extra cost would be generated by how many staff members the new board decides to hire and any new office equipment that might be needed, said Kim Turnage, an expansion proponent.
What supporters say?
With 400,000 people now living in Douglas County, it’s time to grow the board of commissioners, supporters of expansion say.
“Those three (commissioners) carry about 60 appointments to outside boards and authorities, on top of the budget and every land use case in the county,” Turnage said. “Five commissioners with district representation means every part of this county is represented.”
What do opponents say?
Opponents of expansion generally warn of the added cost of paying two new commissioners, plus any support staff they might need. Douglas County Commissioner George Teal told The Denver Post that inserting cost estimates into the question was all about transparency.
“I just want the people of Douglas County to know that if they want five commissioners, it will come with a cost to the county budget to have those five commissioners,” he said last month.
