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HomeMy WebLinkAboutresolution.council.081-94 e RESOLUTION NO. 8:1- Series of1994 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNClL OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO OPPOSING AMENDMENT 12 ON THE NOVEMBER, 1994 STATEWIDE BALLOT WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Aspen, Colorado, a home-rule municipality, wishes to officially oppose Colorado's Amendment 12 which willJ:ie before the voters of the state in the November 1994 election; and WHEREAS, the City of Aspen firmly believes in representative democracy and citizen participation in all forms of government; and e WHEREAS, Amendment 12 is a long and confusing document which will result lin chaos in government and years of expensive lawsuits designed to unravel the misleading and poorly written language of Amendment 12; and WHEREAS, Amendment 12 would open the initiative, referendum and recall petition process to widespread ftaudby making signature validation on such petitions virtually unworkable; and WHEREAS, Amendment 12 seeks to undermine the effectiveness oflocal governmental decision-making by allowing small groups of people to halt community decisions by placing petitions on the ballot for a wide range of administrative and policy issues; and WHEREAS, the constitutional right of every citizen to petition government will weakened by Amendment 12 which proposes a) no verifying of names and addresses of citizens filing for petitions, potentially allowing for paid outside interest groups to petition government, and b) allowing a very small percentage the total population to petition solely for the purpose of delaying community projects; and e WHEREAS, Amendment 12 will further reduce the pool of qualified and - . competent citizens running for elected office due to the excessive personal fines (or elected officials if they are sued forgiving out information to citizens on critical community ballot issues; and WHEREAS, unbridled petitions on every conceivable governmental decision can virtually cause government to grind toa halt, resulting in the type of gridlock experienced in California over the last ten years; and WHEREAS, Amendment 12 would damage the impartiality of the judicial process because judges can now be recalled by a very small percentage of citizens involved in losing a case; WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Aspen supports the basic tenants of Amendment One, the "Taxpayers Bill of Rights," we .acknowledge that Amendment One has also resulted in more taxpayer money being spent on lawsuits, lost opportunities in borrowing money at favorable interest rates, and unfair burdens on resort communities. While we support good government and citizen input we fear that Amendment 12 goes far beyond what is necessary for reasonable people to make informed community decisions; and WHEREAS, Amendment 12 allows filing of referenda petitions to delay action on most public matters for up to two years until an election can be held; and WHEREAS, Amendment 12 will shift power to the wea1thyas .there are no restrictions on campaign contributions by wealthy people to candidates or issues; THEREFORE, be it resolved .that the City Council of the City of Aspen encourages the citizens of Aspen to oppose Amendment 12 this November. Dated this 11th Day of October, 1994 ~ y-: (7&.~~ Johri S. Bennett, Mayor _ ATTEST: . ~ 1Id~L Kathryn S. ch, City Clerk e .