[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Xcel Proposal to the City of Boulder

[kohls at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Cowles, Macon

The City has received a proposal from Xcel for an alternative to forming a municipal utility. 

Xcel has requested that neither the proposal nor changes to the proposal be disclosed to the public or open to public comment until finalized. Xcel is requesting that 1) Council pass on first reading June 7 ballot language approving a 20 year franchise with Xcel; and 2) that terms negotiated between the City and Xcel remain secret until a final “deal” is put together (likely the last week of June).

The City Council does not even discuss a $5,000 pay increase for the City Manager without the discussion occurring in public. Obviously, the terms of a proposal that impact a cash flow in excess of $100 million a year must be discussed openly, so that the informed review and comments of our citizens can shape the outcome.

Xcel’s request to keep its negotiating position secret is contrary to the traditional openness with which the City Council considers the public’s business. Therefore, I request that the Council Agenda Committee schedule for June 7 a discussion and vote on disclosing to the public Xcel’s opening offer and any subsequent offers during its continuing discussion with the City. And I request that this be scheduled prior to any consideration of ballot language relating to Xcel on first reading, since the vote on the first issue will impact the vote on the second. Before there is a vote on any placeholder for the Xcel franchise, City Council members have to know whether Xcel is going to engage in a discussion that so importantly affects Boulder consumers openly and publicly, as we have required everyone else to do.


Macon Cowles
Boulder City Councilor